


The Paladin

by cersedshadow



Series: 12 days of Lance [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: #Lancemas2019, BAMF Blue Lion, BAMF Lance (Voltron), Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lost in space - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22510756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cersedshadow/pseuds/cersedshadow
Summary: Day 2: The Paladin‘Okay Lance, think. What would the others do? Well, Hunk and Pidge would probably the just dismantle the thing with their techno wizardry. Shiro and Allura…probably wouldn’t even get into this situation in the first place, let’s be honest. Keith…okay no! Let’s not do what Keith would do! Keith would probably attacked the thing with his sword by now, or something.'Lance doesn't know what it means to be a Paladin yet. He doesn't know why Blue chose him. He's just trying to do the right thing.
Relationships: Lance & Blue Lion (Voltron), Lance & Voltron Paladins
Series: 12 days of Lance [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1612639
Comments: 20
Kudos: 209





	The Paladin

**Author's Note:**

> Day 2 and its one meaty beast of a chapter. By far the biggest in the series. Thank you to those who commented on the last post. I hope you might enjoy this one too. It was certainly fun to write.  
> But a pain in the ass to format. Ao3 completely deleted all formatting, paragraphs, italics you name it. Anyone else having this problem and wanna tell me how to fix it?

It had taken them too long. Far too long. 

The corrupted wormhole had spun them all out to the furthest reaches of the universe. Separating them in the midst of a crisis. It had taken time to re-group, going from one crisis situation to another as they re-grouped. The worst of which put both Allura and the castle out of commission for a few days. Meaning there was nothing they could do to respond when the Blue Lion finally showed up on the map. 

Hunk had been an absolute wreck the entire time. Imagining what could be happening to Lance. What kind of danger he could have found, all alone by himself. He and Pidge had been generally alright. Landing in a huge floating garbage dump. Between them it hadn’t been hard to wrangle together a signal amplifier and track down the castle. Yellow and Green being only mildly injured. Shiro and Keith had a less fun time, with Shiro being seriously injured and landing on a desolate planet with a number of hostile life forms. 

Strangely though it had been the castle that had been the most affected. Coran and Allura stuck in some kind of crazy dimension slide show. Unfortunately every time they spliced through dimensions their grip on their own reality broke down just a little more. The good news was that when they finally fixated back on their dimension the castle was close enough to pick up Shiro and Keith immediately, getting Shiro the medical treatment he desperately needed. 

The bad news was that the moment Allura had opened a wormhole to his and Pidges location she had collapsed. Apparently multi dimension deterioration and quintessence expenditure did not play well together. It had put the princess into a quintessence equivalent of a coma, as far as Hunk understood it. Without Allura to power the castle they couldn’t use the wormhole. Which meant they couldn’t go a pick up Lance when Blues signal came across the radar.

No longer though. Allura had been given a bill of clean health. Shiro was out of the pod. They were ready. Hopefully nothing happened to the Blue Paladin in the mean time. Lance was a smart guy, despite his often flippant attitude. He wouldn’t do anything to too dumb and get himself injured. 

Hunk thought about this a bit. Worried. 

However, what he definitely would do though is have the bad luck to drop into a dangerous situation with the absolute worst timing and then risk absolutely everything to fix it. Including his life. 

The planet the signal came from was one of the strangest Hunk had seen yet, and that was saying something. It looked like a dome had been placed on a spinning top and then the whole thing had been covered in ice. There was a signal beam punching a hole in the ice at one of the ‘poles’ of the dome. Hunk was instantly fascinated by the deep water world to be found once they carefully manoeuvred a couple of the Lions through. They took Black and Yellow simply because they were the largest. Also because Keith had made it very clear that Red was not at all stoked with the idea of being under thousands of litres of water. Apparently, they had been very vocal on the matter.

When Hunk saw the mermaids his first thought, after ‘holy crap mermaids!’ was ‘Lance hit the jackpot’ and most of his worries instantly evaporated. Especially once they were invited with cheering and open arms into the city and taken straight to see the beautiful, if intimidatingly large, Queen Luxia. Who couldn’t have been more welcoming. Honestly it was a nice change of pace after everything they had gone through recently. However, there was a conspicuously absence of Lance at the celebration.

Mermaid Palace. Beautiful Queen with beautiful attendants. Abundant admiration for Voltron and its Paladins. No Lance…Something wasn’t adding up here. So Allura would just have to forgive Hunk for being rude when he interrupted the Queens introductions.

‘Yes, sorry, lovely to met you and all, but where’s Lance? And the Blue Lion? But mostly Lance?’ Hunk, tried to effect a stern, no nonsense voice but mostly just succeeded in getting across his internal panic. Allura was frowning at him but the rest of the Paladins were also listening closely, eagerly waiting for the answer. Bodies tense and ready to spring into action.

Queen Luxia paused for a moment, Hunk had a thought that if she had eyes lids she would be blinking, before offering him a warm smile. ‘Ah yes, the Blue Paladin. I am sorry, you must be worried. Lance of the blue did us a great service and saved me and my people but is sadly no longer with us.’

Hunk felt the air leave his lungs and he could feel the horror ripple through the others like the falling of a stone into a pond. . ‘He’s dead!’ shouted Keith, blasting himself forward through the water and into the Queens face like he might just accost her for answers. Luckily the Queen was quick enough to rectify the mistake and put them all at ease. The walrus headed guards did not look happy.

‘No, No! I apologise. I mean he moved on from our planet and has gone elsewhere. The last we saw of him he was well.’ 

Everyone breathed a sign of relief and Hunk felt his own heart start beating again. Lance was safe. Not here, but fine. God he couldn’t take this roller coaster of emotions.

‘Perhaps, Queen Luxia, you might tell us what transpired here and where Lance is now? We are anxious to find him.’ Allura said, the only one still calm.

‘Oh, certainly! I would be delighted to. Please follow me. You are honoured guests.’ The Queen led them through the palace and it wasn’t long until a feast was laid out for them and they were encouraged to eat. Hunk and the others did so though even the food wasn’t enough to distract from his impatience. Where the hell was Lance! Perhaps sensing this the Queen got down to business as soon as she was joined by another beautiful light blue female mermaid whose --hair? Antenna? Fins?-- made it look like she had twin tails. 

‘This is Plaxum. She is the one who can best tell you everything that occurred when the Blue Paladin crashed into our planet.’

‘Thank you, my Queen. It all began when…’ 

Keeping their impatience in check Hunk and the other listened to Plaxum spin her tail. Of how the blue lion had crashed through the ice --‘ouch!’-- and came to rest not far from the palace. How one of the mermaids Florona had been in the area and went to check it out and how Lance had followed her out of his lion in curiosity. Hunk could practically see Shiro’s exasperated sigh without even looking but honestly couldn’t blame his best friend. They were mermaids! What was Lance, the guy who had been dreaming of mermaids since probably before he could walk, supposed to do? Not check it out? Unlikely!

Lance had been led to the palace and by the sounds of it, for all purposes, made a fairly good impression of himself and between exclaiming on the mermaids and the Queens beauty actually got around to asking for help and explaining about Voltron. See, Hunk knew Lance could be serious when the time needed. 

Then the tale took a decidedly darker turn as Plaxum revealed how almost the entirety of the mermaid civilisation had been under some kind of mind control. Supposedly caused by the Queen in some way? Luckily, it Seemed Lance was more resistant to this control, or had simply been to distracted for it to work properly as he had fairly quickly managed to shake of its traces after a nights sleep. Which made it much easier for Plaxum and her rebel buddies to recruit Lance to their cause.

They then went on to assault the Queen and the royal guards and use Blue to kidnap Queen Luxia and use the jellyfish hats to break the mind control? Honestly, Hunk was just rolling with it at this point. Though he was sure if they had time that Pidge would be asking a million questions about how jellyfish could prevent mind control? They used the jellyfish hats to cure the Queen and in a massive plot twist found out that it was the plant monster garden thing, called the Baku, that had been controlling the mermaids all along! So it could slowly eat them! It was terrifying to think about.

‘We are so lucky that your brave paladin was here to aid us. Otherwise I fear we might have never regained our free will. Certainly we did not have the means to defend ourselves against the might of the Baku even without the mind control’ said the Queen with great sincerity. ‘The Blue Paladin fought the beast with great ingenuity and courage. Eventually managing to slay it and free out people.’

‘How did he manage that?’ asked Keith. His belligerent tone belayed the impressed look on his face. Certainly Hunk felt fairly impressed hearing everything his best friend had got up to in the days he’d been missing. Him and Pidge had just made some trash caterpillar pets and mucked around making puppets. ‘It sounds like this thing wasn’t exactly easy to kill.’

‘Certainly not. The Baku was a large and terrifying beast when it awoke. Bigger than the Blue Lion. It was a thrilling battle hard won’ said Plaxum, coming to Lances defence in an instant. She had seemed rather fond of him throughout, speaking Lances name with warmth and a slight blush. Hunk honestly felt proud that his buddy had managed to find someone his lines actually worked on. Or maybe it was the whole saving her entire people thing that tipped the scales. Either way he knew Lance wouldn’t be saying no to the attentions of a pretty mermaid. 

‘Paladin Lance released the Queen and I to a safe place when he saw that the Baku had awoke. We were able to see the entire thing from afar.’

_Lance grit his teeth as the Baku approached. Its long serpentine body unwinding and four part mouth splitting open in an attempt to take a bite out of his beautiful Blue. Lance wasn’t going to let that happen and quickly engaged in a cat and mouse chase, leading the beast further from the city to avoid casualties. Blue was flying better than ever in the water but the Baku was easily able to keep up. Lance could see the shadow of it on his screens while desperately manoeuvring around the towering rock spires of the sea bed._

_Running would get him nowhere though so Lance turned to fire. His shots missing the beast as it wove around him. Shooting slowed him down and the Baku soon circled around and hit him from behind. Throwing him into a spiral. Luckily the water slowed his flight and he quickly righted himself._

_‘Damn this thing is fast! How the hell am I meant to shot it?’ Lance continued to attack, running when needed to try and avoid being hit too much and firing when he thought he had a chance. He did everything he could to avoid the teeth of the beast. Not too keen on seeing how wells Blues exterior armour would manage. Not to mention he would like to avoid being eaten._

_‘Gotta hit it. Maybe, if I aim where it’s going to be instead of where it is…’ Lance watched the beast. Noticing its attack pattern. The beast had quickly clocked on that it was best to keep moving if it didn’t want to get shot and so kept circling, only coming in close to attack from the flank where Lance couldn’t easily aim. Smacking Blue before swimming off again and circling once more. Lance stopped in the water and turned, watching the monster swim around, preparing to ram into him from below. Tongue sticking out in concentration he narrowed his eyes and aimed just ahead of the creature. The ice ray flew fast and true from Blues mouth. Hitting it right on the flank!_

_‘Yeah baby!’ shouted Lance. A section of the long body frozen. Lance had celebrated to soon though, as the Baku whipped its tail around, smashing it into the ice three times before it cracked. Freeing itself._

_‘Oh, come on!’ he cried as he took up evasive manoeuvres again. ‘This just ain’t fair! How the hell am I meant to hit it if it’s moving this fast!?’_

_With a grunt Lance heaved the Blue Lion to the side, narrowly avoiding a rocky spire and fired the tail laser blindly behind. With a stroke of luck this caused enough of a vibration on the spire to have a large boulder, balance precariously on top, to crash down onto the tail of the speeding Baku. Having grown used to this things speed Lance immediately took the moment to turn Blue around and open fire._

_His shots did very little, the Baku simply rammed its ice covered head into the rock. Breaking both it and the frozen encasings before continuing its pursuit. ‘No! Think Lance, think! There’s got to be something you can do.’ He really didn’t know what that was though. The thing was just too damned fast! Not to mention smart, attacking what was trapping it to free itself as quick as possible. A simple beast probably wouldn’t be able to think that far ahead. Still, if he didn’t do anything he was going to die. Then the mermaids would be mind swished again and eaten. Lance couldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t let that happen. Not while he was the Blue Paladin!_

_A new screen appeared on Blues dash. Lighting up a number of symbols that had never been there before. Lance could feel a new energy flowing through him as well. A rising urge, an impulse, not entirely his own. It filled him with determination and made his fingers tingle. Lance looked to the symbols, flowing and changing to something approaching understandable. They looked like waves, maybe?_

_The impulse continued to rise as Lance continued to dodge the monsters attacks. Taking a heavy hit._

_**This!** It seemed to say. **Use this!**_

_So, with nothing to lose, Lance gripped Blues steering sticks hard, feeling the energy well within and around him. Willing the new button to activate as he spun around to face the oncoming Baku. The monster had its mouth wide open, spinning teeth on display as it charged right at Lance, trapped against the rock._

_It felt like floating, like being on a rollercoaster just as it tips over the edge, the feeling of weightlessness, the lurch in his stomach at that single second change from climbing to falling. The rush of exhilaration. Lance could feel the sonic canon appear on Blues back, its extra weight, the rush of the water around it. The power and possibility._

_‘Arrraaagggggg’ Lance cried, pushing the sticks forward and firing straight into the Bakus face with all his might. The sonic waves exploded outwards, causing the water to echo and ripple oddly. They hit the Baku straight on and the beast cried out. Swerving and missing Blue, crushing the rock behind him. Lance quickly dove out of the way of the falling rocks. He turned, half expecting the Baku to do the same, only to see it still shaking it head, twitching. The rocks fell and hit it several times but did not manage to bury the beast._

_‘Oh yeah baby! Now that’s what I’m talking about!’ using the momentary stun Lance fired the ice beam several times, keeping the creature locked down until the rocks finished falling. Soon enough it started thrashing and escaped but Lance could see it had not done so without sustaining some injuries. Dark black blood staining the water. The sight gave him hope. If it could bleed it could certainly die. Now if only he could do that again. Get in some hits of his own._

_Lances mind raced. Thinking of the sonic cannon and the response it caused in the Baku. A flash of inspiration hit him. Something remembered from Earth._

_Lance had loved the ocean on Earth almost as he loved the idea of space flight and so had consumed countless wildlife documentaries and odd facts as he could. Right then he was reminded of a documentary on dolphins, how they would use sonar to stun their prey, leaving them hanging in the water easy to catch. Maybe Lance could use the sonic cannon to do the same thing? The Baku certainly hadn’t been responding as normal when it was hit with it the first time._

_Licking his lips, Lance gripped the steering sticks tighter. Flexing his fingers. With eagle eyes he watched the approaching beast on the radar. Anticipation thrumming in his chest. He could feel Blue echoing back through him. Her own energy ready and waiting to be unleashed._

_‘Alright then. It’s time for the hunted to become the hunter. Lets do this!’ Lance waited for the Baku to get close before spinning up and around in the water. Executing a corkscrew at the height of his loop and summoning the same thrumming energy as before to have the sonic cannon materialise. Without a moments pause he fired it at full power, hitting the Baku on the back of the head. The beast flinch hard and crashed into the ground. Twitching as before, disorientated._

_Lance capitalised on its confusion, diving towards it. His shots hadn’t been doing much but he wondered how well the over sized eel would cope with a blade. He activated the jaw blade and dived in. Hoping to carve the damn thing up like sushi. The plasma blade cut straight through the Baku and left a large gaping wound in its wake. The beast screeched and thrashed in pain, looking throw Lance off. He was ready and with a cry of exhilaration shot Blue up and out of range. Before the beast could even turn he had the sonic cannon primed and firing. This time it wasn’t a direct hit but close enough it seemed to do the job, the area of the sonic blasts being rather wide. Once again the beast was distressed, once again Lance flew in as fast as he could to give it another slice and dicing._

_It was messy and took time. A number of times the Baku tried to escape the beating it was now receiving. Lance used the same tactic it had though, cornering it against the rocks as best he could before stunning it. Freezing it with the ice ray just long enough to get a good head shot and leave it floating defenceless before moving in to the kill. While it was no clean fight eventually the Baku could take it no longer, succumbing to its gathering wounds. Lance finished it with a charged shot to the head, just to be sure._

_Lance sat back in the Blue Lions seat, panting and sweating in his suit. He had done it. He had done it! Taken down the monster, saved the mermaids! ‘Awww yeah! Who’s the best Paladin! Sonic cannon for the win!’ A rumbling charged feeling. Like an amused and fond admonishment, or a colossal poke to the ribs. ‘And whose the best lion!? You’re the best lion! Blue all the way! Now lets go check on Queen Luxia. I wonder if the mind swishing will have worn off now that it’s dead? I don’t think Plaxum had enough jellyfish for everyone.’_

_Lance return to the mermaid village, picking up the Queen and Plaxum on the way. Triumphant and buoyant with victory. The kiss from Plaxum and the celebration held in his honour did nothing to help his swelling ego. Lance felt proud. He had done his job and done it well. He had saved all these people. Yes, he was separated from the others but the Queen was going to activate a signal beacon which would boost the Blue Lions own signal. Hopefully allowing the other to track him down no matter where they were in the universe. He could only hope nothing bad had happened to them but he was sure they were alright. He himself had come out unscathed despite the danger and his fellow Paladins were just as awesome as he was. Having assured himself Lance continued to enjoy the party and a good night’s rest. Sure that all he had to do was wait._

'We activated the beacon to call you here and had intended to let the Blue Paladin rest as long as needed. However, the next day we picked up a distress signal from a small planet in a nearby system. After another day of waiting the Blue Paladin decided that he simply couldn’t ignore it and left to provide assistance,' finished Queen Luxia.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Hunk wasn't sure about the others but he himself was fit to bursting with pride for his friend. Lance had unlocked a new weapon for his lion! He had defeated the evil monster that was mind controlling everyone! He had saved the day! Hunk couldn’t be more ecstatic. For once Lance would deserve all the bragging he was sure to get out of this.

Hunks good mood was rather ruined by the announcement of the Queen though. Of course Lance would go a throw himself into danger again without a second thought. Why, oh why, couldn’t Lance just sit tight for once instead of flying off to be the hero? Well, Hunk knew why, it was their duty as Paladins. It was why he was so insistent on saving the Balmera and its people when he saw how terribly they were being treated. Honestly though, couldn’t Lance have waited for them to get here at least?! Didn’t he care about Hunks stress levels at all!.

'He left by himself?' asked Shiro, sounding about as alarmed as Hunk felt.

'Yes. Unfortunately we had closed ourselves off from the rest of the universe some time before the Baku appeared. It will take us time to rebuild our interstellar vessels. We gave the Blue Paladin all the supplies we could for what little help they may provide but he insisted on leaving to help those in need.' Queen Luxia stood --swam?-- from her seat and retrieved something from one of her attendants. Coming back with a small object that looked for all the world like a clam shell. Placing it on the table she tapped it once and an imbedded pearl like thing light up, projecting a map of the nearby systems for them all to see.

In the system next to theirs, not to many light years away, a small dot was blinking. Circling a large gas giant. Hunk was fascinated and if he wasn’t so determined to leave as soon as possible and go rescue Lance from whatever mess he had got himself into would have been dying to get his hands on the clam projector. Just how did that work? Was it magic? Technology? Was everything clam based in this society? The Paladins and Allura focused in intently as the hologram zoomed in to the red flashing dot.

'The distress signal was coming from Furma-zeta. A small planet orbiting a gas giant in the Furma-tatton system. It is a nearby system, fairly small with few stars and many gas planets. The Furma-zetians themselves are a mostly aquatic, semi-amphibious race like ourselves. We had trade agreements from before we closed our borders. Though I couldn’t say what it is like now. The distress signal was picked up almost half a movement ago. '

Hunk studied the map intently, zooming in on the planet itself. Calling it small was right, it could possibly be a dwarf planet by Earth standards. About the size of Pluto maybe? It was hard to tell with its strange shape, almost like a very short pin. Or a board tack. With a round flattened head facing away from the gas giant it was circling and a small pointed tapered tip behind it. It looked like someone pressed the pause button on a comet and then smashed down one end.

Once they were sure they had all the information they could get and the map had been transferred over Allura and Shiro stood to face the Queen. Thanking her politely, if quickly, for all their help. Luckily Queen Luxia seemed more than understanding about their impatience and wished them good bye with all haste. Of course Allura left them a communicator in case they ever needed their help.

Hunk wished all planet leaders they met were as laid back as the mermaid Queen. It really would make their job so much easier. Still diplomacy wasn’t his area of expertise so he, Pidge and Keith were quick to make their return to the castle in the Yellow Lion. Black followed not a moment behind and a few dobashes after Allura had opened up a wormhole and the planet Furma-zeta was laid out below them.

The immediate lack of explosions and laser fire was encouraging. The lack of Blue Lion was not.

Allura could feel the headache coming on when she reached out for the Blue Lion and got only silence in return. Her connection to the lions was a thin and tenuous thing but it did allow her to know if they were close by to some degree. The rest of the castle instruments were also showing a distressing lack of Blue Lion. Allura scrunched her brow, fingers tensing on the castle controls as she brought the craft down to the flat head of Furma-zeta.

Honestly if someone had offered her a movement without Lance bothering her before all this she probably would have jumped at the chance. A time to relax without his constant flirtations and silly antics and obscure references sounds lovely in practice. Now though, after doing nothing but worry and fret of the well being of her Paladins, throwing herself across the Galaxy to gather them all close to her like an over protective mother only to come up one short, she was ready to tear her hair out. If it meant Lance being safe and with them once again she would listen to a hundred of his lines! She would even laugh!

Entering the atmosphere it was soon apparent that the Galra had been here. It was also apparent that something very bad had happened to them recently. If the still smoking, shattered remains of the huge damn built all around the centre of the planet meant anything. Within the very middle of the smoking remains, with high spiralling crystal structures spearing through, sat a purple ocean. Fed by a number of large magenta rivers all converging inwards from the rim of the planet.

Allura was always equally fascinated and terrified of water planets. Altea had had no standing water above ground, the oceans buried far below the crust and not something readily accessed or seen. She could swim of course, it had been taught to her as part of her education as the hair to the throne and came in handy for diplomatic situations like with Queen Luxias people. But she had never been comfortable with large amounts of water. Never at home. The sight of the frothing pink waters, the colour of mourning in her homeland, felt like a bad omen. The signs of the Galra presence, even damaged and abandoned, did nothing to sooth the bad feeling rising in her chest. Please let Lance be alright.

'There!' Pidge said, pointing through the viewing portal. 'Something’s in the water.'

Allura looked, narrowing her eyes, and brought up the scanners once they were hovering amongst the crystal spires. The scanners pinged back, revealing that a number of biological signals were gathering underneath. Not a moment later faces started to emerge from the water. Large black eyes in pointed heads. Smooth noses tapering down to a small mouth and whisker like appendages spilling like frills around their heads into the water. As the ticks went by more and more face gathered to stare up at the castle.

A ripple of colour spilled through the aliens. Travelling in waves of light from one to the next to make mesmerising patterns of dark blue and black on the pink background of the ocean. The rippling colours increased in frequency and intensity, getting darker and darker, coming faster and faster. Repeating themselves intermittently. Allura stared, unsure of what to do.

'Coran, do we know anything o these Furma-zetians?'

Coran cleared his throat and spun his moustache some. Looking on with great curiosity while bringing up files from the castle. 'Can't say I’ve met them myself princess. Nothing in the data bases.'

'You mean you don’t know anything about them?' asked Hunk, twiddling his thumbs nervously. 'I thought you Alteans had been everywhere!'

Coran frowned and sniffed. 'Alteans were a brilliant and far spread race but even we could not encounter every sentient life form in the universe. Not even in my wild youth did it come to this sector. With the recent trouble with the AI programme much of the castles stored data has been corrupted. I’ve been going through it as fast as I can but nothing on Ferma-zeta just yet. I’m sure it wouldn’t take me more than a few varga to dig it out if you like?’

'We don’t have that long' but in Keith, striding forward to look at the gathered aliens below. 'I say we just go down in Voltron. Demand to know where Lance is.'

'We most certainly will not!' cut in Allura. 'Voltron is a force to be used to defend the universe. Not threaten innocent civilians.'

'We don’t know their innocent!' cried Keith, throwing his hands into the air and glaring at Allura hotly. 'For all we know they could have hurt Lance and be holding the Blue Lion hostage.'

'The Blue Lion is not here. The scanners would have picked up on something.’

'All the more reason to go down there. Lance could be anywhere by now!'

Allura glared at Keith. Keith glared back, crossing his arms, but she was determined to out stubborn him. She wanted Lance back as much as any of them but threatening people was not the way to go about it!

'It looks like it might be a language' said Pidge, instantly getting everyone’s attention. 'The light patterns are repetitive in sequence. They keep repeating the same thing for the most part. And look they’ve started to move to one of the larger crystal rock things.'

'Think you could translate it?' asked Shiro.

Pidge pushed her glasses up her nose and crossed her arms. 'Course I could but I've got nothing to base this on here. I would have to run it through a most likely case algorithm and to do that I would have to drag out the castle database on colour based languages. Then I would need to cross reference it, extrapolate the data and superimpose it on to our own alphabet. All of which is going to take time!'

'Yeah, we could do that. Or we could just go to where they are waving at us.' cut in Hunk, still looking out the viewing screen. Allura whirled around and took a look herself. Indeed finding that the group of aliens had dispersed from the water and were now gathered by the base of a shallow crystal mound arising from the water. Two of the aliens had gotten out of the water entirely, revealing large bulbous bodies, with short stocky fin like limbs. Two of which they were industrially using to wave at the castle. Beckoning it closer.

'Oh' said Allura, quietly. Quickly she worked to steer the castle forward and set down on the crystal base. The landing area was not particularly even but it would do well enough. With some haste they ran to exit the castle and greet the aliens. Anxious to hear what had happened to Lance and gather any clues as to where he may be. On emerging into the purple light of the planet, helmets firmly secured in the unfriendly atmosphere, they approached the two revealed Ferma-zetians. The others of the race waited, colours flashing across their long snouts, body submerged in the waters.

'Greetings, I am princess Allura of Altea and these are the Paladins of Voltron. We have come to your planet to offer aid and to seek one of our own.’

The Furma-zetians had looked fairly ungainly creatures from far away but were much more intimidating up close. Rising above Allura and her Paladins by several feet. Bigger than any other alien they had met so far. Their bodies, while wet and bulbous, spoke of having hidden muscles, the two long sections of their tail ungracefully but propelling them forward with ease. Their heads alone were bigger than Alluras torso and the added width the head fronds made them seem even bigger.

Allura resisted the urge to step back and kept her eyes firmly on theirs. All her training hadn’t been for nothing. Behind her Keith stood tense and ready, hand gripped around his inactivated bayard. Shiro was in much the same ready state. Hunk gulped nervously. The Furma-zetians moved closer, extending their necks a seemingly impossibly amount. They stopped but a foot from Alluras face and their cheeks flashed through colour patterns more readily.

Allura continued to smile 'I'm sorry. I do not have a means through which to understand your language.’. Going with Pidges guess that the colours were how they communicated. It wasn’t often that you met aliens with no concept of verbal communication but it did happen and it offered a big challenge to the castles inbuilt translating equipment.

The Furma-zetian drew their head back, turning and flashing signals to their fellows, which flashed back in return. Behind her Pidge and Coran were muttering about it, fascinated. Allure would have to scold Coran later for encouraging her. The Paladins, while now proven defenders of the universe, were still undisciplined in many ways. Eventually the most forward Furma-zetian turned back to her and extended one of its head fronds, which began glowing. It hovered, waiting, beckoning it in front of her face.

Allura looked at it, uncertain. Glancing back to take in the rest of the Paladins reactions. All around them a few more of the Furma-zetians extended their necks from the waters and heaved themselves onto the rocks. More glowing fronds were extended till one hovered in front of each of them. Allura caught Shiros eye, both of them clearly unsure on what to do.

'They do not seem aggressive' she said, 'and they could lead us to Lance.'

'Something certainly happened here and we need to know what. If doing this will help, then...' trailed of Shiro. Agreeing with her but still hesitant. Allura could understand why. Unknowns could be dangerous things when it comes to dealing with other species. However, the thought of going another movement of no Lance, of not knowing what was happening to him. Of wondering where the silly flirty Blue Paladin had got too, made her ache. With a quick breath to brace herself Allura reached forward to grasp the glowing frond.

Instantly a connection was established between her and Furma-zetian. The feeling of understanding, of knowing, washed over her. Suddenly the flashing colours all made perfect sense. The way the light glittered on the water, the shine from the crystal rocks, the dazzling spots and waves dancing on the cheeks of the Furma-zetian all spoke a language of their own. It was beautiful.

'Everyone, do not worry' she said, holding on gently to the glowing frond but looking into the Furma-zetians eyes. 'They don’t mean us any harm. This will let you understand them.'

'Really? Fascinating. Some kind of semi-telepathic knowledge transfer' muttered Pidge before reaching forward herself. All around them the Paladins and Coran one by one did the same. Allura could tell the moment they came to understand the language themselves through the lessening of the tension in their shoulders, the relaxing of their brows.

'Welcome' said the Furma-zetians all at once. Patterns flashing on their cheeks. 'The Blue one said you may come. You are welcome.'

'Thank you. I am princess Allura, these are the Paladins of Voltron' she repeated. With the connection she could feel between them she was sure that this time the Furma-zetians would understand.

'Welcome. You are welcome! I am Tsurrin. We are Furma-zetain. You are welcome! What can we do for you? Why do you come?' The patterns flashed, repeating and overlapping. A hello within an introduction within a greeting within a question all at once. The colours flowing together and harmonizing in perfect sequence.

'You said that a Blue one had passed through here. We wish to find them' said Allura, her own language feeling clunky and slow in comparison.

'Yes. The blue one. Saviour! Drove away the land scourge. Opened the waters. Washed away the badness. Gave life back. Left for stars. Fighting! Still fighting! Rescue our true treasure. The treasure of Furma-zeta!'

It was all too much, Allura couldn’t parse out what they were saying. The moment she had asked for Lances whereabouts all the Furma-zetians had burst into colour. The ones in the water rising up to flash patterns and colours along their whole bodies. Some even threw themselves from the water, splashing and tumbling in their enthusiasm.

'Please! Please would you just tell me what happened? What happened when Lance got here? Where is he?' The Furma-zetian before her looked at her without blinking, before waving some of their heads fronds slowly. Instantly the rest of the gathered Furma-zetians quietened, returning to the water. Colour draining from their skins to leave them a pallid lilac. Slowly, with great care, Tsurrin began her tale. Fractals and spiralling nebulas dancing upon their skin to paint a story of the Blue Paladins arrival and his great deeds.

_Lance whistled as he approached the planet from below. Damn, but Furma-zeta looked just as strange as Queen Luxia had shown him. It had taken him about a day and a bit to travel there, Blue pushing herself to cover the distance unbelievably quickly. Considering he didn’t have any back up or even any idea what trouble he was getting himself into Lance had decided discretion was the better part of valour and to employ stealth. He may like a thrill but he wasn’t Keith levels of reckless._

_This had him approaching the planet from what he could only think of as 'below', zooming in on the planet from the gas giant. To improve his camouflage Lance was practically hugging the large celestial body. Almost dipping Blue into the vicious swirling winds of thousands of tonnes of gas. Blue, for her part, didn’t seem to mind too much, sure it made steering a bitch but it was a little like being caught in a very fast current. Lance imagined it was a little like rapids, or a rip tide. Either way Blue seemed to be having no difficulties with the increase in pressure so Lance pushed forward towards the planet. His eyes darted to the scanners and back to the black inky backdrop of the universe. Determine to pick up any sign of the Galra before they had a chance to spot him. Anxiously he waited but there was nothing to be seen. No flash of purple, no lasers, no explosions. Not a single ship flying his way._

_Cautiously, wary of a trap, he approached the planet, skimming along the atmosphere towards the squashed head. There seemed to be some kind of halo around the top of the planets circumference, light dancing oddly, fracturing out like a fuzzy mirage. It left a strange impression to the eyes. Like a pin was being pressed backwards onto a square of velvet, distorting the magenta speckled space behind it._

_As Lance got closer he saw the halo was actually clouds, thousands of them. Ringing the top of the planet, gathered under those clouds was a delta, spread out far and wide all along the circumference of the flat top. The gathering of wetlands and small streams were broken and shattered with grey rock spires, breaking open to reveal huge crystals within. The mountain sized geodes reflecting the lilac rivers. Lance could only stare, taken by the beautiful but utterly alien sight. It was like someone had spilled a jewellery box over the ocean and then proceed to colour everything in shades of pink._

_'Allura would love this place' he whispered, 'it’s so sparkly.'_

_As pretty as it was danger still lurked, the distress beacon beeping away. Evidently the crystal Lance were seeing were not at all like the Balmeran crystals, otherwise Lance was sure the Galra would have stripped them bare ages ago. That or he would have had to fight off a battalion to get here. Still, there were no ships in the sky, not one Galra to be seen, so Lance continued to fly forward, heading towards the centre of the planet._

_It was only as he did so, skimming close to the waters and weaving around the crystal spires, that something unnatural began to make itself clear. It started as a small black line, then rapidly spanned to cover the entire horizon, growing rapidly bigger and darker the closer Lance got. It took a few more miles for Lance to realise what he was looking at._

_A dam. It was a dam. Gigantic, spanning the entire range of his vision. Filling the distant horizon. Lance immediately stopped flying forwards and started flying parallel. Keeping as far away as he could while still having visual. It took flying like this for several miles for him to realise that the dam was gently curving. Forming a circle and cutting off the entire centre of the plant._

_The swollen and bloated rivers crashed against it, joining together to make three huge lakes._

_'Whoa' breathed Lance, seeing the expanse of the construction and the amount of water it was holding back. As he hadn’t been shot at or triggered any kind of alarm he had taken Blue high enough to get an aerial view. With it he could see the expanse of the dam and the near dry land within. 'Why would they do that? What do they want?’_

_Lance knew that the Galra technology relied on quintessence and highly doubted that the Galra had suddenly decided to go for hydro electricity in a big way. Something was going on here and someone was in distress because of it, or the flashing beeping red dot on his dash board was lying. Now Lance just needed to figure who needed saving without getting caught. It was a miracle so far that the Galra hadn’t seemed to notice his presence. Blue didn’t have cloaking technology like the Green Lion. Either something was interfering with the Galra scanners, the dam was abandoned, or the Galra simply weren’t looking too closely at the skies, not expecting anyone to come knocking._

_On the one hand the best case scenario it was the second option, as it meant Lance was unlikely to have to fight. On the other hand it was also possibly the worst case scenario, as the Galra leaving the dam probably meant that they had got what they wanted and left. Most likely killing or destroying everything else, leaving the distress beacon as a relic of a forgotten people. He wouldn’t know until he investigated. So how could he get closer?_

_Lance looked around at his surroundings and towards the dam. Thinking of the large lakes and the swollen rivers. The whole thing looking like a blood clot on the surface of the planet. Restricting flow to the heart. Maybe he could use that? Blue had been right at home in the water on the mermaid planet, and his new sonar cannon worked well not only as a weapon but as a means of scanning ahead. Something Lance had discovered quite by accident just before leaving Queen Luxias people when he had gone to help move the Bakus remains. Perhaps he could approach the dam from below the water? The sonar cannon mapping ability should give him plenty of warning if he was going to run into a Galra submarine and it would hopefully help to hide him from their radar closer to the dam._

_Mind made up Lance sent Blue into a dive at the nearest deep river, having been flying circles until then. He could almost feel a tingle coming from the bond as they submerged, a deep contented feeling rippling across his skin. Like a cat luxuriating in the sunlight. 'Oh, you like that girl? Don’t worry when this all over I’ll get Allura to let us go swimming some time.' Lance patted Blues dash fondly before looking forward. Blues eyes beams illuminated the waters below, showing the alien wild life flashing by and the same crystal structures growing below ground. There was no immediate sign of civilisation and the mile passed by, Lance closing in on the dam._

_A few miles out with no sign of the Galra other than the looming wall and the sonar picked something up on the edge of its range. Lance slowed his approach, cautious. Firing another sonar wave when he could get a clear reading. There was some kind of secondary wall? Before the dam itself, hidden in the water and blocking the way. Definitely not natural._

_Debating briefly Lance continued forward for a little bit until he came across a decent sized cave. Reluctantly he left Blue, to her own dismay as well his, and ordered her to put up the particle barrier. The blue shimmering light reflected from the crystals like a kaleidoscope. With a fond pat and promise to stay safe and come back quickly, Lance activated his jet pack and swam forward. The waters had grown deep the closer to the dam he got and the obstacles more dispersed. Lance kept a vigilant eye out for predators, not to keen on meeting this planets equivalent of jaws. He also kept an eye out for any friendly mermaid aliens. You never knew, he could get lucky twice! He was suddenly regretting not asking Queen Luxia exactly what the Furma-zetians look like._

_Lance approached the underground wall, ready for anything, but still shocked by what he found. It was a mesh, stretching from one side of the river to the over, embedded in the ground and the far distance sides of the lakes. The mesh itself was large, the weave of cables more than wide enough for Lance to pass through if needed. Though he wouldn’t leave him much space around the shoulders. Indeed small creatures were swimming between no problem. Though he didn’t seen any large creatures approach._

_Lance hid behind a crystal pillar and waited, eyes narrowed. Sure there must be some kind of trick. The longer he looked though the more it just looked like a net. Why though? Were they afraid of something coming to close to the dam and damaging it? Something fizzled with unease in Lance’s gut, a practical paranoia when it came to anything Galra made. No way this wasn’t something bad. Slowly he drew his bayard and transformed it into his rifle. Taking aim he shot one of the cables._

_Instantly the grid lit up. Lightening racing down the cables. Boiling the water around it in a lilac flash. Lance blinked his wide eyes twice and slowly closed his mouth._

_‘Okaaaayyyyyy then. Don’t touch the wires. Got it.’ Lance, very carefully, moved towards the mesh once the lighting had run its course. The water quickly cooled again and not a few dobashes later the fish things were swimming without pause back and forth through the boundary. Lance floated a few feet away, trying to psyche himself up for what he was about to do. Very closely Lance watched as some kind of organism, with frankly way to many tentacle things to be comfortable, floated through the mesh, bumping into the cables with no sign of being flash fried._

_‘Okay Lance, think. You can go through the electrified mesh and hopefully not end up as BBQ. Or you can stay out here and do…nothing. What would the others do? Well, Hunk and Pidge would probably the just dismantle the thing with their techno wizardry. Shiro and Allura…probably wouldn’t even get into this situation in the first place, let’s be honest. Keith…okay no! Let’s not do what Keith would do! Keith wouldn’t have paused to think and probably attacked the thing with his sword by now or something. Okay, just don’t touch the sides and everything should be fine. Nice and smooth, just like you.’_

_Slowly, ever so slowly, Lance drifted closer to the mesh. Being on the mermaid planet had given him experience moving through the water with his jest pack and with small controlled bursts he pushed himself forward. Lance could feel the sweat gathering on his brow as his head slipped through the cables. Shoulders following behind, leaving only a few inches on either side. Nice and easy he slid through the net, expecting at any second to be fried. Then, it was over. He was through. No Lance BBQ to be had._

_Lance opened his eyes from where he had clenched them shut and turned back to look at the fence. Completely electric death ray free. ‘Huh. Well that was easy’ he swam forward. Now if only it would be so easy to find the Furma-zetians while avoiding the Galra he would be all set. Though what would the chances of…_

_A large horse like face appeared from above him. Lance screamed and startled back, limbs flailing as he threw the jet pack into reverse. Still yelling he went to turn around but the thing was fast, swimming down and around him in moments to block his way. Spots of colour danced across its skin. Still panicking Lance scrabbled at his thigh, looking to summon his bayard from its weird pocket dimension in his thigh brace. With a flash of blue he had his rifle and pointed it at the creature. Breathe fast and erratic._

_‘Stay back or I’ll shoot! I don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll do it. Don’t test me.’ The creature continued to float in the water, its long split tail fanning in slow elegance behind it. The large head watched him closely with black bulbous eyes. Whisker like fronds extended behind its head like hair. The thing was huge, easily three times the size of Lance._

_For a while their standoff continued. The creature flashing its colours and Lance gripping his rifle. When nothing else continued to happen though Lance slowly relaxed. Initial panic passing. It didn’t seem aggressive. Maybe it was even friendly?_

_‘Hay there alien nessie. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just looking for the Furma-zetians. You know any Furma-zetians buddy?’_

_The thing continued to look at him, unblinking. The only thing that changed was the patterns playing across its skin. They were faintly luminescent, sparking through the water in odd ways so as to make streams of colour and bouncing off the nearby crystals. Lance really hoped that it wasn’t calling for its buddies. He could always swim through the mesh to escape. There was no way something this large would be able to get through._

_Lance paused, played that thought back. There really was no way the nessie creature could get through the mesh. Or go anywhere. On one side there was the electrified fence and on the other was the dam. It was trapped, stuck in a lake sized tank of the Galras making. The realisation washed over Lance. It was enough to have him deactivate his bayard. His gut was telling him is hunch was right. The dam wasn’t for energy, it was a prison._

_‘Is that it? Are you trapped here? Do you need help?’ Nothing, just the colours, ‘Hay, buddy come on you got to work with me here. Say something!?’ Lance swam closer, shouting and flinging his arms wide. Nessie startled back, keeping out of his way. Agitated Lance reached after them, only managing to briefly touch one trailing head frond._

_For a second the world burst into colour. Flashing particles dancing across his eyes and through his mind to paint a picture of the present, future and past blended together in a pallet of colour.. Comprehension fleeting and beautiful until the frond slipped from his fingers. The being turned to look at him sharply. Lance watched it breathlessly, still trying to parse through the flashes of colour in his mind._

_‘It’s you guys. You’re the Furma-zetians! You’re who I’ve been looking for. Please, I’m here to help. I’m the Paladin of the Blue Lion of Voltron’ he said hurriedly. Lance reached towards the Furma-zetian but it pulled away. Lance bit his lip, pushing down his impatience._

_Way to introduce yourself Lance. Just point your gun at who your here to rescue. Allura would have his head if she found out. ‘Please. I’m sorry for earlier. You just startled me. I really am here to help.’ Slowly, Lance reached out once more. Leaving his palm facing up, open and inviting. Then he waited, willing the Furma-zetian to understand. To make the first move._

_Miraculously it did. Slowly, so slowly, one of the whisker fronds lit up and reached forward. Hesitating a moment before pressing into his palm. The colours returned, this time not just as a flash but an entire language. Rippling in waves through the water. Refracting off crystals. The whole lake was alive with chatter._

_'Err hi' said Lance, still trying to wrap his mind around what he was seeing. 'I come in peace? Seriously, sorry for pointing my gun at you and all, you just scared me. Popping out like that. I’m Lance. A Paladin of Voltron. I picked up your distress beacon.'_

_'Greetings Lance. I am Tsurrin. So long has our distress beacon been lit and no one has come.' The feeling of sadness was palpable. The loss._

_'I -I know. I’m sorry. But I’m here now and I want to help. How can I help? What are the Galra doing here? Why have they built that dam? Are you prisoners?'_

_Tsurrin paused, the colours muting. Lance assumed it was their equivalent of taking a breath but the lack of the dazzling lights left him strangely bereft. The colours had been so beautiful it was hard to focus on the conversation and not just float there and gawk. Still, he was a paladin. He had a job to do. He could freak out about the cool colour language thing later when everyone was safe._

_Tsurrin seemed to consider him for a moment, large dark eyes unfathomable. After a moment they reared up to splay their fins wide in the water. The fronds halloing their head. Then the light started to shine, starting from the tips before spilling to cover their entire skin. The patterns emerged, swirling across the glowing canvas that was Tsurrin. The water lit up around them, the crystals glowing and sparkling in return. Lance gapped in awe._

_It was only when the water was sparkling with light that Tsurrin began to speak, and as they did so Lance could see it. The past painted in front of him as a weaving collage of colour and feeling._

_'We Furma-zetians have never had much contact with interstellar species. Living as we do in a small secluded part of the universe. When the Galra arrived we were unprepared for their violence. Before their arrival our people were spread all over these rivers, from the deepest depths of the mother ocean to the rim of the world. Traditionally, we are a nomadic species and different clans would migrate to their own patterns. There was only one place in which all Furma-zetians gathered and this was the mother ocean. The birth place of our species and the place to which we all shall return.'_

_Lance could see it. The planet he had flown over stretched out in his minds eyes. Only this time the rivers were not bloated and the dam did not exist. Instead a huge great ocean resided in the centre, dark magnate with the gathered waters. Within crystals of all colours emerged as spires and underneath, in the Furma-zetians world, it was no less dazzling. A city made of light. Where thermal vents spilled forth warm water, light and minerals to enrich the surroundings. Furma-zetians of all types and age gathered in celebration._

_'The Galras did not rush in. Firstly they studied our species. We had heard nothing of their violence and so believed them to be as peaceful as they portrayed themselves. This did not last for long. Once they had learned what they could and deemed us valuable they were quick to imprison us. They started by dropping corrupted quintessence into the vents of the mother ocean. Poisoning the water. All who remained died slowly and in pain and many others suffered later. It forced us to flee the ocean to the furthest reaches of the outer delta to avoid the spread. Scattering us and making us defenceless.'_

_Lance gasped, the feeling of terror from the rush to evacuate the now poisonous ocean rushing through him as if it was his own. Seeing Furma-zetians, mothers and fathers, lovers and siblings, children and the elderly all falling. Choking on invisible poison. Those that escaped almost had a worse fate. Dying slowly, skin blistering, eyes crusting, fins rotting where they swam. The children wailing as their veins blood burst, sticky blood seeping out into the lilac waters. This with death. It was horrible, wretched. Lance could do nothing but watch, too horrified to look away. Tsurrin too watched at the story they were weaving, a deep forlorn sadness within them._

_'And then what?' urged Lance, whispering._

_'Then the Galra were free to built their monstrous wall. Blocking the rivers, causing them to burst. Changing the waters travelled by the ancients into unknown and dangerous territories. They starved the mother ocean, forcing much of it above ground and controlled the flow of both the waters and our people to her embrace.'_

_'Why though? What’s so important about the mother ocean. Like, I know it’s very important for your people but why do the Galra want it? How did you come to be trapped by the fence? Why didn’t you stay away?' asked Lance, struggling to understand but still reeling from horror. Honestly, what did the reasons matter? The only thing he knew for certain was another species and planet had suffered devastating loss and destruction at Galra hands. Once again they had come and taken everything they could, anything they deemed important, and hadn't cared for the suffering they were causing in return._

_Tsurrin paused once again. The colours slowed in their rippling as they gathered their thoughts. 'The mother ocean is important for my people as it is where we give birth to our young. We may have swum in every river and every lake but we always returned to the mother ocean to mate and birth. It is an ingrained inpule and one our ancestors were not able to fight. They swam, unable to go against instincts of millennia. Once they got here the Galra trapped them with the wire mesh.'_

_'Surely some of you resisted though? Or escaped? How could they trap an entire species?'_

_'It is not so simple. This was not of my time but a story from my forbears. The Galra have been here for many generations already. We do not go to the mother ocean to have our young just because of instinct. The thermal vents there give off energies and minerals found nowhere else. These are essential for the development for our young. Some Furma-zetians may have escaped the initial capturing all those years ago. But without being able to go to the mother ocean all their young would be still born. There would be no one to continue their legacy and eventually they too would succumb to old age. As such, only those trapped by the Galra survived and so we are forced to obey their commands if we wished to continue living. Though we are but toys to them.'_

_'Well not any longer. I’m going to stop this. I have my Lion with me. We'll find a way to free you from this place and return the ocean to how it was. Break the dam and let your people go free again.'_

_'My people would be forever thankful if you allowed us to return to our mother ocean. The poison has long since left the waters and we ache to return.'_

_'Would that work to save you?' said Lance, anxious. 'If I can break this dam and return you to the ocean would you be alright? Wouldn’t the Galra just come and attack you again? I...I'm alone here. The other Paladins aren’t with me and without them I can’t form Voltron. Blue and I are a forced to be reckoned with but we won’t be able to defend a whole planet if the Galra show up in force.'_

_Though it galled Lance to admit it he couldn’t just go and put these people in more danger. This wasn’t like the Baku. The Galra were not so simple. If breaking the dam just caused a war to start and for the Galra to arrive in force not only would Lance be in danger of being taken prisoner, something he really didn’t want to think about, but he would also be risking the rest of the Furma-zetians. They didn’t exactly seem like they had any way to fight. The Galra would simply bombard them from above. Unlike Queen Luxias planet, which was entirely water encased in ice with little outer atmosphere, this one had a sky that ships could easily fly through._

_Tsurrins patterns made a strange speckled wave and one of their head fronds brushed against Lances visor. He got the feeling the alien was trying to reassure him. 'The mother ocean has much of our technology. The distress beacon is also there. If we were returned to it there are defences that we could activate. They would keep us safe from the Galra should they come. Though I don’t think they would.'_

_'Why not?' said Lance, surprised. He gently gripped the frond he was holding, giving it a reassuring squeeze in return for Trurrins sentiment. 'Surely they are here for something?'_

_'Yes. But what they desire is now few in number. They have taken almost everything they can. I do not think they would have reason to return.'_

_Lance thought this over. He supposed if the Galra had already taken everything they found valuable on the planet already they would have no reason to come back. Even if their prisoners escaped. The Furma-zetians had no way of attacking the empire or really communicating with other races and they were not aware of Lances presence. As long as he kept it that way and the Furma-zetians defended themselves he supposed the empire might just leave the planet alone. Lance had seen that been done before, the Galra abandoning places once they had sucked every useful resource they could from the planet and its people. Leaving what little was left to its fate. Uncaring to the suffering they caused._

_Still, it was odd. Lance couldn’t for the life of him think what the Galra wanted with this planet. It obviously wasn’t the abundant crystals. Maybe something in the inner ocean? Something about these thermal vents? Why trap the Furma-zetians though? Keeping them locked in this water cage like animals. Surely if all they wanted to do was mine something in the inner ocean they could have just built the dam to keep them out? Let them go extinct like the ones not captured._

_Wait, why were the captured ones not extinct? Lance blinked, feeling like he was on the verge of uncovering something. If the Furma-zetians needed to get to the inner ocean to raise their young then how were these ones still alive? The dam was stopping them from getting there. Unless the Galras were letting them go there for some reason?_

_Lance looked to Tsurrin, floating serenely in the water. He didn’t think they had lied to him, the sadness they expressed was too real. The images of the dying to vivid to be fabricated. There was something they didn’t wish to tell him. Something they had been hesitant to divulge. The reason the Galra were on Furma-zeta to begin with. What they found so valuable._

_'Why are the Galra here Tsurrin?' Lance asked, voice firm. 'What do they want from you? What have they taken?'_

_Tsurrin stilled for a moment. Their colours faded and the play of light in the water dimmed. Their fronds came to lay flat against their head. The silence and absence of colour rung with such a deep shame and sadness that Lance almost regretted asking. Such a profound depression had come across his new friend that he wanted to do nothing but confront them. But he needed to know. He needed to understand what the Galra wanted with these people if he was going to hurt them. For once Lance remained quiet, channelling patience from his sniping practice, to wait Tsurrin out._

_Eventually the Furma-zetian raised their head and slowly colours began to spill across their cheeks once more. 'The Galra found use for us Furma-zetians in growing their army. At least, they did. When it is time for us to bare young we lay eggs. These eggs need to be incubated near the thermal vents to hatch and the young remain in the warm waters in the early stages of their life if they are to survive.'_

_Here they hesitated, obviously not willing to go on. Choked with emotion. Lance felt guilty, it was obvious that what they were trying to say was causing them distress. Hesitantly he swam forward , wrapping a frond gently round his arm as he did so to keep contact. Lance splayed his hand on Tsurrins cheek, just below where the colour spilled across them. Their flesh was surprisingly firm but completely smooth. In a reflection of what they had done before to comfort him he patted them reassuringly._

_'Take your time. What about your babies was so important?'_

_'The Galra found out that if they were to...remove the embryo and use their technology the egg could function as an incubator for other cells and foetuses. At first, when they took our eggs in abundance, nothing else worked quiet so well. So they used them to birth more Galra to help with expanding their empire.'_

_'You mean...they took all your babies and killed them?' breathed Lance in horror._

_Slowly Tsurrin flashed affirmative across their face. 'Yes. My people do not birth every cycle so they hold us here so that when the calling comes for us to return to the mother ocean they might selectively allow those to do so. But with so much of the mother ocean now dry there is little space in which to place our eggs and even less space to hide. Once we have laid the eggs, the Galra are quick to separate us, weak as we are, and steal the children.'_

_Lance honestly felt sick. Like he was going to throw up within his visor. Bile bubbled like acid in his throat. To think of such large scale murder, going on for generations! The Galra killing babies, stealing Tsurrins children like they were harvesting fruit! Not a care for all the lives they were taking. How many potential Furma-zetians must have died? Millions?_ Billions! _Just how many generations wiped out? Just so the Galra might birth soldiers more quickly to fill their ranks. To spread their scourge all the faster._

_'How have you survived?'_

_'In the beginning the Galra would leave a few eggs every birthing cycle. The children would hatch without parents but some survived. Enough that our species continued. But we dwindled in number. In the past we were many and now we are but few. All contained within this one cage. A few hundred of us at best.'_

_'Thats...' Lance started and then couldn’t continue. A whole species almost brought to extinction. Slowly and deliberately destroyed due to greed._

_Tsurrin looked at Lance with their huge eyes. 'Yes. My people are all but gone at this point. It is why I do not think more Galra will come. There are but few of them left on the planet. Just enough to run the dam. Only small ships now come from the sky when before there would be many. The Galra no longer leave any of our eggs to live, taking them all instead. They no longer care to keep our number for their gains. Other methods have since been discovered. Now it simply lies to them to take what little else of us they can and leave when the last of us dies.'_

_'Well I’m not going to let that happen' said Lance, suppressing his sorrow and turning it into rage. He would make the Galra pay for what they did to these people. He would free them. 'I'll free you and you can get your ocean back. And Voltron won’t ever allow them to take your children again. I swear it.'_

_The question now was how he was going to do it? The easiest way, he supposed, would just be to break the dam. Blue could probably do it with some time. However, alerting the Galra that a lone Paladin of Voltron was here would just bring more to the planet. Making the situation worse rather than better. He would have to destroy the dam without them knowing it was him. Remain hidden._

_'Tsurrin do the Galra monitor the dam in any way? Or the wire fence. Do you know if they would notice it being destroyed?'_

_'Not that I am aware of. We destroy what we can of theirs if its put in the water. I have come to understand that the resonance given off by the crystals reflecting the radiation of the gas giant interferes with their communications equipment. And it is worse in the water, where our own light is strong.'_

_'Really? Well this just got a whole lot easier then. Hang tight Tsurrin, I’m getting you out of here and taking this damn dam with me. Gather everyone and get them as far away from the dam as you can. I’ll have Blue make a break in the fence so you can swim out.'_

_Tsurrin swam off to gather the rest of their people and tell them of Lance. Lance himself return to Blue, finding her just where he left her and quickly swimming inside. Immediately she lit up and warmth suffused his chest. For a second Lance sat there and revelled in the feeling. It was such a nice feeling and just felt so...Blue. He was sure if he was still seeing the colours of the Furma-zetians a pallet of blue would have flooded his vision. Representing his lion and their bond. He couldn’t help but smile._

_'I missed you too beautiful. Now come on, we have some people to save. I’ll fill you in on the way.' So saying he sped Blue quickly off to the electric fence. Considering it for a moment Lance froze it over with a concentrated bust of the ice beam. Briefly being distracted by the pink ice until Blue nudged him to get on with it he then shattered the whole thing with a blast from the tail cannon. This seemed to be enough to do the trick, leaving a large gaping hole within the fence. Fractals of pink ice spinning lazily outwards._

_Hopefully Tsurrin was right and the Galra wouldn’t notice the destruction of the fence but just in case Lance moved quickly. Pushing Blue through the gap, scrapping her slightly in the process much to her chagrin, he rushed forward. Not a few seconds later Tsurrin and the gathered Furma-zetians were lit up under Blues eye beams._

_'Don't be alarmed! Please go through the fence and get as far away from the dam as you can. This might get messy.' Lance shouted out, realising only a moment later that there was no way for them to hear him. The Furma-zetians seemed to have no more ability to understand spoken language as they did to speak it. Thankfully, either the Furma-zetains were smart enough to make the right decision or maybe Blue did something because not a moment later the gathered aliens were streaming past him. Swimming through the fence as one shimmering shoal. One Furma-zetian briefly came to rest their snout against one of Blues eyes, Lance only recognising Tsurrin by the distinct pattern they flashed. One he had quickly come to recognise as his name._

_Smiling Lance waited for them to leave and continued forward. Sticking close to the ground and approaching the foot of the dam. From underwater it was even more of an imposing eyesore as above. The wall stretching as far as the eye could see. A stopper on the world. Quickly, but carefully, Lance got to work. He didn’t know much about structural engineering, that was Hunks area of expertise, but he could take a good guess that weakening the dam along the base, where millions of tonnes of water were straining to push through, wouldn’t result in anything good. For the Galra that was, complete destruction of the horrible monstrosity would suit Lance just fine._

_First, Lance flew along the bottom of the dam looking for any obvious weak points. Seeing a number of small openings used to control the water flow and what seemed to be some sort of closed opening. A gate to let the Furma-zetains through when needed. Icing over these areas he was hoping the expansion of the water might put some strain on the structure. Quickly, conscious that he was probably taking far too long, Lance continued to ice along the floor of the dam, at every small seam or opening he found. Firing the tail laser at one of these iced off regions, causing a rather satisfying explosion but minimal damage._

_'Damn it!' exclaimed Lance, pun unintended. 'How the hell am I meant to blow this thing? Could I just ram it?' Blue sent a vibration of agitation through him. Causing Lances teeth to ache briefly. 'Okay, okay! No ramming. Not our forte, got it. What do you think girl? Iceing up and blowing everyone one of these points will take to long.' The Blue lion didn’t react, not that Lance was expecting her too, and he went back to re-icing the hole and covering any more he could find, mind still spinning._

_Suddenly there was a small nudge upon his mind, like Blue was trying to get his attention. It was sort of weird, like hearing something through a door or a swimming pool. He could make out the vibration of the sound but not the words. It instantly got his attention and Lance listened in, straining to figure out what his lion wanted._

_'What is it girl, you got an idea?' The rumbling sensation became more insistent but still it wasn’t like Lance could read Blues mind. The words remaining stubbornly out of reach. Lance focused, closing his eyes and blocking everything else out. His own worries and impatience, the horror still faintly lurking, his fear about failing the Furma-zetians and being caught by the Galra. Instead he just focused on the sensation Blue was giving him, concentrating on his Lion and their bond. Imagining it as the Furma-zetians might see it, a wash of blue and sparkling purple. Flashes of red and yellow and green. A symphony of colour moving back and forth in the waters, ever changing but balanced, growing and never ceasing._

_Lance opened his eyes and found his hands were on the controls for the sonic cannon. Fully formed and ready. The beam set to wide range and continuous pulse. A frequency already set. He knew what Blue was thinking and figured it couldn’t hurt to try. Backing off Lance swam to the middle of the dam and settled Blue on the riverbed. Digging in her claws for traction. Energy surged through him, Blue roaring out her own defiance in his mind, Lance released the blast. Sonic waves rippled through the water, hitting the bottom of the dam and the ice sprinkled over it. A high pitched whine started to resound. Lance vividly reminded of how opera singers could break glass using just their voice._

_The ice exploded. All at once every single bit of ice he had placed on the dam shattered, causing shockwaves to ripple outwards. Lance felt the impact as it hit Blue, gritting his teeth through the impact. Blues claws scrapping the ground as she was pushed back a couple of inches. Debary and shards of crystal flung up into the current had been sent into the air with the shockwave, pinging off her armour. Lance waited anxiously for the gem dust to clear to see if any damage had been done. Sure now that the Galra must know something was going on._

_What Lance did not do was turn off the cannon, so focused on his task that he and Blue continued to keep the sonic waves building. Reaching higher and higher frequencies. The whining, ringing sound setting his teeth on edge. Something, in hindsight, Lance probably should have taken notice of. The crystals, every single one, big and small, shattered. A cone of destruction from the tip of Blues feet expanding outwards to hit the bottom of the dam. The shockwave given off by the ice exploding couldn’t compare. The crystals burst with violence, scattering shrapnel at high speed, destroying everything it hit. Lance and Blue were tossed from the river bed and pelted with the flying crystal as they somersaulted backwards through the water._

_'Holy crow!' Lance gripped the steering sticks for dear life so as to not be thrown from the pilot seat. The sonic cannon deactivated in his flailing and the spinning world outside was chaotic enough to make him dizzy. Lance tried to wrestle back control but it seemed one crystal exploding had set off a chain reaction and still more of them continued to ignite. Sending the water into a frothing, sparkle speckled frenzy._

_There was a sudden deep wrenching sound. Like a pulsing drawn out howl. It took Lance a moment to work out it was the sound of metal bending in on itself, wrenching apart as continuous explosions sent vibrations pulsating through it. Panels caved, cracking apart. Causing dents, cracking apart panels. Fault lines appeared, spreading outwards by the second, braking into entire trees across the dam, splitting the metal in two._

_The gate was the first to go, the door warped and bending its surroundings. With one last scrapping noise it gave, the water rushing in to fill the gap. Like a cork popping it was the start of a cascade. The pressure released, pushing forward, breaking free at last. Deep pulsing waves were sent through the lake to hit Blue as one after another parts of the dam started to give._

_'Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! One more time!' Lance positioned himself again, focusing on a place just left of his initial strike zone and the extremely large cluster of lavender crystals. Licking his lips he called forth the energy one more time, materialising the sonic cannon, ramping the frequency up high. The winning sounds built almost instantly and the crystal exploded with even greater violence than before._

_This time Lance was ready for the backlash, riding out the shock wave as best he could like a pro surfer. There was a single moment of stillness, crystal dust falling like confetti. Blue caught in a snow globe, ready to shatter on a whisper. Lance held his breath, fingers twitching on the controls._

_The dam gave._

_The water rushed forward. Lance pushed the controls down hard, flinging Blues nose upwards as the water tried to rip them away. Riding the current was almost impossibly, the debris kicked up by the sudden rush scattering in his vision, blinding him. Lance could only hope they weren’t going to hit anything as he flew Blue as fast as she could go towards the surface. He really hoped Tsurrin got everyone to a safe distance._

_One moment it was chaos the next Blue burst free into the sky, streaking out the lake like a rocket. 'Warrrrrggggg' screamed Lance as he wrenched on the controls, sending him into a corkscrew. Just managing to avid a head on collision with what was left of the rapidly crumbling dam. Flying further and further into the air Lance took in the destruction he had wrought. The water was pushing through in a multitude of areas, the deluge growing more and more intense as the metal failed, being swept up in the tide. From within the lilac lake spilled unending into the bowl that was the inner ocean._

_The noise was incredible, thunderous and all consuming, the bellow of a titan re-surfacing from the deep. A natural disaster reawakened. Lance could only gape completely taken the sheer scale of the._

_‘Holy shit’ he breathed, eyes wide. A siren picked up from somewhere. No doubt the Galra scrambling far too late to fix the situation. There was no fixing it now though, as more and more of the river pushed forward. The damage was spreading rapidly, unstoppable but Lance figured he may as well help it along. Finish what he started. He and Blue were clear in the air now. No more hiding. He just really hoped Tsurrin was right when he said the Galra communications were scrambled or he was going to have to make one hell of a quick getaway._

_Diving Lance set about blasting anything he could see indiscriminately. Ice and lasers flying. Using Blues jaw blade to slice through mounds of metal and chomping it in her jaws. So focused was he on his current task of messing everything up to the maximum that he almost missed the small cargo vessel leaving from a far off outposts. If not for Blues beeping radar he would have let it escape entirely._

_'Damn it! Get back here' Lance raced after the fleeing Galra. Determined not to let them escape and break the atmosphere. Just how far did the range of the crystal resonance block the communications? He couldn’t afford to find out. Pushing Blue to fly faster Lance sped towards the ship. It wasn’t very large, obviously not a fighting vessel, only about twice the size of Blue. That didn’t mean it wasn’t armed and it was only as he flew closer that the eerie glow of an ion cannon at full charge made itself know. Lance watched the purple glowing light. Terror filling him._

_'No!' Maybe it was instinct, maybe it was luck. Either way he had been using the weapon so frequently now that without thinking Lance fired his own sonic blast in response. Not in one controlled continuous wave as before but as one large, single pulse of power. Invisible waves rippled through the air to hit the spacecraft. Lance thrown back in the pilot seat from the strength of the burst. Eyes closed, air snatched from his lungs to leave him gasping, Lance waited for the end. Expecting the ion cannon to fry him and Blue. Sure that he had failed._

_Nothing happened. No purple light descended from the heavens to smite him. Lance pried his eyes open one at a time. Flinging himself forward over the dash to look at the ship. Only to find the whole thing dark, ion cannon no longer charged, thrusters no longer firing. Without the engines the craft looked dead and hollow. Hanging impossibly in the bright periwinkle sky. Inevitably, gravity made itself know and the ship fell. Lance watched the whole thing in slow motion, the ship tumbling over itself like a leaf blow about by the wind. Bound for impact with the still mostly dry ocean bed of Furma-zeta. Disbelieving he watched as it hit the bottom, practically felt the impact in his bones and wondered at the following fiery explosion._

_'Holy crow…Blue did you just EMP that thing?'. Blue remained silent. Lance reached for her only to get a subdued rumbled in return. Apparently firing the sonic cannon took it out of her and that last one was a doozy. Silently apologising for pushing her so hard Lance remained circling. No longer trying to break the dam faster but keeping his eye on the sky, weary that the Galra would have another means to escape. Hours passed with no movement to be seen. The water continued to flow but eventually calmed most of its fury. Eventually Lance went to the other parts of the dam when Blue felt rested enough and destroyed them in much the same way as before. Watching the ocean fill and the rivers recede. Without the swollen arteries of water new entire mountain ranges of crystals were uncovered and glittered like starlight, scattering rainbows across the gentle sky. Pride suffused Lance, warmth spreading through him to fizzle pleasantly in his swelling heart._

_Mission accomplished._

Allura slowly blinked her eyes, the vision dancing in front of her fading to leave the just Tsurrin staring back. She licked her dry lips, unsure how long she had been standing there. 'And what then? Where is Lance now?'

'Once the waters settled and the Blue Paladin had been assured of our safety he went to investigate the crashed Galra ship and the dam stations. Weary of there being other survivors. While he did not find any he did find star maps detailing the course the cargo vessels that had taken our young for the last decaphebes. The Galra have moved on from using our eggs for birthing and now use them for experimentation. They were being transported to a small station on the other side of the sector. Along with many other 'specimens', as written. From what the Blue One discovered it is a small laboratory working on experimental interbreeding of species.'

Allura and the rest of the Paladins eyes were wide. Any sort of experimental station sounded bad but this spoke of atrocities of the unspeakable kind. Just what could the Galra were doing with the young of the Furma-zetians she didn’t want to think about. Allura glanced at Shiro to see his reaction. The mans skin was ashen and sweaty but his eyes were hard. Metallic hand clenched tight. No doubt the thought of Galra experimentation weighed heavy on him.

'Once the Blue One learned of this he insisted on going to investigated. We could not dissuade him and so gave him the supplies we could, food mostly, to show our thanks for returning us to the mother ocean. There was also the chance that the resonance of radiation on our planet would have blocked your own communications just as it did the Galra.'  
'Do you have these star maps?' said Shiro, stepping forward. Serious and ready for action, brown drawn tight.

Tsurrin nodded. 'Certainly.'

The wormhole closed silently behind them. Shimmering into nothingness.

‘We should have visual in a few dobashes’ said Allura, concentrating fully on steering the castle into the latest solar system. An unstable place with several smaller gas giants circling each other restlessly. The radiation given off by them was the perfect place to hide something. Making tracking energy signatures almost impossible.

‘Alright team. Look alive and get to your lions. We don’t know what we are going to find. With the time it would have taken Lance to cross the system he can’t have been here much more than a day. Meaning we have to find him this time’ Shiro said. Preying to everything he knew that it was true.

After being run around this part of the universe looking for the Blue Paladin he was more than ready to just grab the boy and lock him his room for awhile. Just to make sure he didn’t wonder off anywhere else. Honestly, Shiro kind of expected this kind of behaviour from Keith but not Lance. For all of Lance’s silliness he wasn’t one to do anything to reckless. Preferring to stick with the group. Especially since the incident with Nyma and Rolo had really hammered home how dangerous it could be to casually do so. Shiro couldn’t really find it in himself to blame Lance too much for that small misendevour. The other might rib the boy about it but other than Hunk everyone else was just as taken with the scavengers’ story as the Blue Paladin.

‘Hang on. I’m getting an intense spike of radiation up ahead. Looks like the nearby gas giants been giving of some flares. It’s messing with my monitoring equipment’ said Pidge, jabbing away at her laptop screen.

‘I thought you said you adjusted for the radiation’ snapped Keith. He had only gotten more and more angsty the longer they leap frogged around the universe chasing down the Blue Paladin. He and Lance might not have the friendliest of relationships but Shiro knew Keith. If he formed an attachment to someone, no matter how fraught, he wouldn’t let go easily. How he acted when Lance came out of the healing pod the first time more than showed that he cared for the others well being. Considering Shiro own recent injuries he must be just as anxious as him to make sure Lance was safe and whole.

Though by the sounds of it Lance was doing just fine on his own. Better, even, than before. Taking down sea monsters and freeing an entire group of aliens, preventing their extinction. Shiro couldn’t help feeling this time was different. That Lances luck must eventually run short. Shiro didn’t have too many memories of his time under Galra hospitality but what he did remember was more than enough. It frightened him to think of Lance going to a place like that. The boy would have no idea what he was getting in to.

‘I adjusted for a _relative_ amount of radiation. This was past my predictions’ snapped Pidge. Not taking well to being doubted.

‘Will it affect the lions or the castle?’ asked Shiro.

‘Shouldn’t do, though our communications might suffer.’

‘Can we just go! Lance might need help’ exclaimed Hunk. The poor boy had basically been an anxious wreck since the mermaid planet. Which Shiro was still not over, because of all planets of course Lance would be the one to find mermaids. Shiro seriously thought the universe just like fucking him over for laughs sometimes.

‘We will just have to chance it. I want us to be prepared to fight if need be. Everyone to their Lions.’ So saying Shiro strode forward, going to zip line and getting comfortable in Black. He shot off into space, Red coming to fly by him a moment later. Green and Yellow slightly slower behind. Once everyone was gathered Shiro led them forward. Hoping everything would be alright, but concerned about what they would find.

What they did find was not what Shiro had been expecting. Moving forward Pidge warned them, through crackling comms, about the increase in radiation and gases given off by the planets. Warning them to not leave the safety of the lions. She didn’t need to tell Shiro twice, he could feel the buffeting effecting Black. Evidently waves of gasses were still being thrown off by the nearby small orange gas planet. Approaching the base they found it had been hit, and hit hard, by the flares. Leaving it nothing but a damaged floating wreak, slowly orbiting. Pillars of ice piercing through it, clear evidence of the Blue Lion. The base itself looked dead, hollow of energy and life. There was the scattered corpses of a few fighter jets floating around but nothing bigger.

‘Well Lance certainly made a statement when he arrived’ Pidge’s dry tone crackled and cut its way through the comms.

‘Everyone, move in carefully.’ They flew off, scouting the place from the outside. There was two holes ripped in one side of the ship and the control deck had been completely eliminated but other than that the place was mostly unharmed, if dented and torn by the storm. The hanger bays and other entrances had been iced over which explained the lack of fighter drones around. Shiro noticed the smart move and made a note to remind himself to get Lance to try that next time they came across a battle cruiser.

Eventually, with no life emerging from the base, they moved in. The hole was only big enough for the head of a lion to fit through so Shiro had Keith melt the ice off the hanger and then the hanger doors with his heat beam. Having got inside Pidge declared them shielded enough from the radiation to disembark but to keep their suits sealed. The life support was apparently shot, along with pretty much all the other power on the ship.

They investigated floor by floor and were shocked by what they found. It looked like a lot of the robots had gone down when the power did. Falling where they stood with no signs of damage. Opening one up Pidge and Hunk declared there was nothing wrong with the software. Not that Shiro was expecting that. Lance might be proving himself more resourceful than they all realised but that wouldn’t make him a genius with alien computers over night. It was when they reached the floor where the hole had been ripped out that things got interesting. For one, it was quiet obvious this was close to where the prisoners were generally kept. For another, there was no small amount of dead Galra littering the way. The lack of life support meant they were frozen solid and floating gently, bumping slowly from wall to wall, making the whole scene even more macabre.

Most had been taken out with plasma shoots. Single shots to the heads in some cases. Not all of them had fallen so quickly though. There were signs of a sever struggle just in front of the second opening. That wasn’t the most surprising thing though. Along with the soldiers a dead druid spun lazily in the air, their torso having been pierced through.

Shiro felt his breath catch. How the hell had Lance got the drop on a druid? Who knew what they were capable of! Their powers were unknown and incomprehensible. But there was the proof, Lance had killed a druid. Not a single prisoner left in the place, one dead druid and several dead soldiers. Lance had done it. The only question is how?

‘Shiro, come here’ said Keith, voice grave. He was near the exit hole. Shiro pushed himself over. ‘Look at this.’

Shiro looked at the floor, seeing a stain on the dark metal. ‘What of it?’

‘Scan says its human blood. Wherever Lance is, he’s injured.’

‘Damn it. Alright team, looks like we are safe here for the time being. We need to figure out what happened. Any ideas?’

‘The control deck looked pretty much like scrap when we flew by but they could have a separate security control room’ said Hunk. ‘The base is small but it’s possible.’

‘If not I might be able to hack my way in from the cargo bay controls but it would take a while to set up a relay into the systems.’

‘Good enough. Lets split into teams of two to look for a possible security room. Our comms seem alright as long as we remain close to each other but keep your guards up.’

‘Will do’ replied Pidge as she and Hunk made to move out. Shiro looked to Keith and shared a knowing nod. Moving without talking they set to scouring the place for anything useful. Ten minutes in and Keith hit lucky, finding a room filled with dead monitors. Pidge concurred that it was a security hub and got to work hacking her way into the system. With nothing else to do while they waited the males of Voltron were just left to worry.

‘Right, I’ve got into the camera and entry logs. I’m pulling everything I can from the last day or so. Not too sure how much I’ll get though. If the gas storm was enough to damage the base and drop the power it’s likely to have affected the equipment before then.’

‘Just get what you can. Our main concern is trying to figure out where Lance might be now. Nothing else.’

‘Rodger. Okay give me a moment.’ Pidge ran through the footage, looking for anything out of place. She was right to think that the storms would have done a number on it. More than half the footage from the last day was completely missing or damaged beyond repair, the video fuzzy with static. ‘Hang on, I got something. It’s Lance! Look!’

The Paladins all rushed forward, straining to cram around the small screen Pidge had got working. The camera had a bad habit of cutting out every few seconds and the video was grainy but it was clearly the Blue Paladins lanky form on the screen. He was not having a good time.

_Lance really wasn’t sure what he was doing. Like, at all. Fighting the Baku and freeing the Furma-zetians left him feeling proud and accomplished but it was nothing compared to what he was about to try. This had a chance to get real messy real quick. If he got captured the rest of the team, Voltron and then the whole universe would be paying the price. The best course of action he could take would be to sit tight, wait for the others to find him and then hit the base as a re-united Voltron. Lance knew this._

_He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t wait. He hadn’t told Tsurrin but in the wreck of the Galra ship he had managed to drag out some files on the type of experimentation going on. It wasn’t pretty. Holding prisoners, crossbreeding species, forceful mutagenesis of embryos and young children. Prosthetic experimentation like Shiros. The list went on and on, enough that Lance was really glad that he had a strong stomach, or he was sure it would all be over Blue by now._

_So no, he couldn’t wait for the smart thing. Not when waiting might lead to more suffering. He had to do something, and that something was freeing the prisoners and then blowing the whole place to hell. He would just have to make it up to the team later. Talking a deep breath Lance scanned his surroundings. A small ornage gas planet spun in place, a ring of dust and ice crowing it. Hidden within this ring was the Galra base, orbiting gently._

_What to do? Thinking, Lance lent forward and tapped at a few read outs on the dash._

_‘Radiations kind of high. Maybe it could help cloak us like on Furma-zeta? What do you think girl, worth the risk?’ Lance asked Blu, throughout these few days he had really felt their bond grow. Strengthened through their time together and the trials they had faced. . Allura had said this would happen, that the Paladins of old would talk about their Lions as if they spoke to them. Lance just hadn’t expected it to be so quick. Ever since he unlocked the sonic cannon Blue had become a a greater and greater presence in his mind. Prodding and thrumming in response to his questions and emotions. Lance had never felt closer to her._

_Lance flew closer to the gas planet, intending to skim by its upper atmosphere to avoid detection while he scouted the base. Blue apparently had other ideas, the moment he dipped her feet in she took control and sent them into a nosedive. Submerging herself in the winds and thousands of millions of tons of gaseous elements._

_‘Holy crow! Blue, what are you doing!? We’re going to be crushed!’ Lance pulled back desperately on the joy sticks but got nowhere. The controls refusing to budge. Blue sent him a pulse of feeling, as soothing to his panic as school water on a hot summer day._

_**It’s alright.** It said. **Trust me.**_

_So, with ragged breathing, Lance stopped pulling on the joy sticks and let himself be taken for a ride. Hands gripped tight to the arm rests of his chair, sweat beading on his brow. ‘I hope you know what you’re doing beautiful. I’m too pretty to be crushed to death.’_

_Hitting the planet was like hitting sand. Soft but impactful. The gasous atmosphere so thick as to be solid. Blue pushed herself down into it carefully and soon the view ports were smothered in swirling dust. Lance cold almost feel it, the pressure surrounding him, the press of it all. Not once had he so viscerally felt the immense weight of the Furma-zetan lake or the ocean of the on the mermaid planet, but for this he couldn’t escape it. The crush, the pressure. He could practically feel the straining of Blues metal hull, the compression of their joints. Blue flew on without hesitation, submerging themselves, not mind the weight. Submerging themselves deeper into the tempest. Lance supposed he could only be lucky that the planet turned so slowly, allowing Blue to push against the raging winds instead of being swept away._

_Then it was gone. The pressure, the dust, the winds. Silent save for Lances own shallow breathing and the rushing of the blood in his ears. The change was so sudden and surprising Lance briefly thought he was hallucinating. But they really had broached the storm. Safe and sound._

_‘What in the universe?’ breathed Lance, throwing himself forward to take the controls. Something Blue seceded to him without a fight. Lance spun her around, taking in what he was seeing. Above him the storm continued, gases and dust swirling in a tangerine maelstrom. Below him a small ball of rock and ice stretched out. Barren of life and only about the size of an asteroid. Lance skimmed along it. Trying to take in the strangeness of it all._

_It was a planet within a planet. Like one of those Russian doll thingies that his sister had. The readings even said it had a breathable, if fairly thin, atmosphere. The pressure of the storm above substituting for the low gravity of the asteroid. How the hell did it even work?!_

_‘Did you know this was down here?’ he questioned Blue. Lance didn’t get much more than a small purr in response but chose to take that as a yes. ‘Damn but Pidge would love this. It breaks all common astrological sense. It would piss her right off. ’_

_For a while Lance did little else but wonder at the spectacle. As strange as it was thought it wasn’t enough to distract him from the job at hand. Not when the laundry list of atrocities the Furma-zetains suffered was still fresh with him. Now Blue had shown him the perfect place to hide from the Galra he could really start planning his attack. As advance as they were Lance highly doubted they could follow him and Blue through the storm. The Lions were in a class all of their own._

_‘Blue you’re a genius’ praised Lance. Getting a much more self satisfied purr and suffusion of warmth in his belly in response. Smirking he grabbed the joy sticks, figured out the trajectory that should bring him out around the Galra bases current location and had Blue dive right back into the storm. Sure now that his girl could take it. His girl was built to work well under pressure it seemed. He should have never have doubted her. ‘When this is all over I’m giving you a rub down from toe to tail beautiful. You deserve it.’ That got him the biggest purr yet._

_Cautiously Lance stuck Blues head out of the gas planet and located the base, orbiting not a few million miles off. Practically on their whiskers in space terms. He watched it for a bit, Blues thrusters working overtime to keep them still, waiting to see if any Galra fighters would emerge. Like a crocodile he had Blue skim through the upper atmosphere of the planet, head and back only partly visible. With a little bit burst of energy the sonic cannon was prepped and ready. A few shots of sonar later and a 3D map of the base was being compiled in front of him on the dash._

_First job done he had Blue quickly dip back into the planet. Maybe a bit too quickly as the last waves of sonar hit the gases above him, sending them spraying outwards in a turbulent flare of matter and energy._

_‘Quiznack! I’ve got to stop doing that.’ Lance had Blue descend to the calm centre of the storm once more, landing them on the dirty ice of the asteroid. Turning his attention to figuring out the map. Spinning the hologram slowly as he thought._

_‘Okay, so luckily this isn’t very big place. These are obviously the hangers. Nothing big enough for us to pick up in there but that doesn’t mean they don’t have drones. Then this…is probably the control deck and here would be the engine room. Which means all of this’ gestured Lance, zooming in on the middle portion of the map, ‘is potentially where they are keeping the prisoners.’_

_Lance took his time, taking in the mess of corridors and rooms. Comparing the layout to the memories of Galra outposts they had attacked before. ‘Erg, I wish Pidge was here with her funky computer magic. She could probably hack her way in no problem. Then I wouldn’t have to guess.’ Lance lamented, but Pidge wasn’t here and so Lance was left to go with his gut. Decision made he now just needed to figure out how to break into the base in the first place. Preferably without leaving himself swarmed with fighters and the rest of the Galra empire hunting him down._

_‘Humm, hay Blue, how much power do you think you can put in the sonic cannon?’ He got a muddling feeling in response, thick syrupy bubbles of uncertainty. Rivers filled with silt. ‘Like, enough you think you could EMP that place?’ A pause and then a sharp, crisp, biting feeling tingling through his finger tips. That was a no then. Lance wasn’t too surprised, firing the blast to take out the single small ship on Furma-zeta had seemed to take more out of her than all the other sonic blasts combined._

_Lance continued to brainstorm, getting more and more agitated as he continued to come up blank. How could he shut down the entire base without the EMP? ‘Arg! If only we had Voltron. We could just charge in and damn the consequences. In and out with the castle before the Galra even got off their purple furry asses! Think Lance, think! What have you got? A magical space cat with sonar, ice and lasers. A laser rifle. A hiding place inside a planet to retreat to. I could try to hit and run I suppose. Get everyone out before reinforcements arrived. Hiding down here wouldn’t be too bad. But what about the castle? Would the others be able to track us down hidden under all this?’_

_In his agitation Lance had been flying Blue around in spinning circles without thinking. Sending her into corkscrews and loop-de-loops at random. Dipping in and out of the storm, skimming her feet through the surface layer and flicking them out to send the scattered gases swirling through the air before being sucked in to the vortex once again. The pilot equivalent of him bicycling his legs on the control deck. Lance had always thought better when he could move and speak everything out loud. It was a habit that had driven his family and most of his friends crazy. Even Hunk got exasperated with it on occasion. Blue didn’t seem to mind, letting him vent it all out._

_Lance chewed his lip and watched the gases swirl about, eyes unfocused and thoughts far away. Slowly, an idea formed. It wasn’t exactly the best idea, relying a lot on luck, but it was something. Something he could work with. If all failed he would just hide in the gas planet. In and out like with the castle._

_‘Okay Blue, here what we are gonna do…’_

_Lance let out a slew of ice beam fire. Freezing up the hanger doors as quickly as he could. He then proceeded to ice the entirety of what he was sure was the control deck before releasing a sonic wave, shattering the thing. Just to make sure he then let loose with his tail laser to finish the job. Right, he thought, step two and three taken care of. Now for the hard part._

_So far no fighter jets had broken through to come bother him. The few scout drones that had been flying around obliterated when the first flare of gases hit. The storm of radiation and dust wasn’t exactly easy to manoeuvre through but he managed. If it wasn’t for Blues sonar he would practically be flying blind and even that was getting interference._

_On the one hand his idea to cause a massive flare from the planet by firing the sonic cannon within the atmosphere had worked. The thing had hit the base like a tsunami and caused just as much destruction. On the other hand, it had maybe worked a little too well. Seeming to knock out practically all power in the place and making it a test of all his piloting skills to navigate within it. Which now meant Lance had to get the prisoners out STAT. If life support went down there would only be some much heat and oxygen left to go around._

_Estimating as well has he could Lance had Blue ice over a mid section of the base and then ram through it with her head. Something she was not all to happy with. Lance didn’t have time to apologise though as he was already jumping from her maw. Rifle materialising with a blue flash to take down two Galra, disorientated from the sudden attack, in quick succession with shots to the head. Panting already Lance charged through the base. Following what he thought was the route to the prison cells._

_His luck was proving true once more as blasting through one more Galra and the door he found himself in a long corridor. Cells on either side. Each had a blank door and large electronic lock which was no longer working. The power gone. Not waiting any time Lance started prying open the doors, the heavy metal resisting. Conscious of the time he started shouting._

_‘Everyone! This is Lance of the Blue Lion. Paladin of Voltron. I am here to rescue you but we have little time. The powers down and the doors don’t work. You need to pry them open! I am a Paladin of Voltron. I am here to rescue you!’ he repeated, shouting as loudly as he could. As he did so he managed to wrench open a door. Finding the huddled figure of a willowy white alien, four small eyes with trailing furry antenna stared back. Lance offered them what he could of a smile. Reaching out a hand, he very gently led them from the cell._

_‘Hello, I’m Lance. Paladin of the Blue lion. We need to escape as fast as possible. Head down the corridor and to the right and you will find the Blue Lion. You and everyone else need to get on board.’_

_Time a wasting Lance moved on to the next cell, trying to maintain his calm as the seconds ticked by. Inside Lance was cursing. This was taking way to long! There was no way he would get all the cells open in time. Behind him there was a grating sound as a cell door was thrown open violently. Breathing a sigh of relief that at least some of the prisoners were getting the message Lance turned to greet them. Only to raise his rifle reflexively, plasma glowing. Ready to fire. The Galra was quick to raise their hands._

_‘Don’t shoot!’_

_‘Galra! Get where I can see you. Everyone we need to go!’_

_‘I’m a prisoner! I wish to help’ said the Galra, not moving. As normal they cut a large and imposing figure, rising above Lance by a head and a half at the least, Limbs well muscled and well clawed. They had the fuzzy koala ears just like General Sendak. However, they were dressed in prisoner garb and Lance could see them limping. Their face alone was enough to speak of starvation and scars were littered on the skin he could see fur dirty and matted._

_Heart in his throat, breath heavy, Lance lowered his gun an inch. Glaring at them all the while Lance thought about what he could do. Doors were still only slowly being prized open by the occupants within. Minuets or more must have already passed since he freed them and the alien behind Lance wasn’t moving! He didn’t have the time to think about it! Lance took one last look at the Galra and went with his gut._

_‘Get the other doors and get them out. I’ve punched a hole in the ship with Blue and taken the power out but we need to move. Is this all the prisoners there are?’ decision made Lance barked his orders, already turning to work on another door. Rifle returning to normal with a blue flash. Door opened, he grabbed the red scaled alien inside, shoving them into the corridor. To their credit the Galra didn’t hesitate to help. Further down more doors were opening and Lance was more than surprised to see several Galra emerge. The first shouted at them and they soon got to helping. Though there was more than enough angry snarling going around as they did so. Many of the aliens panicked slightly when the Galra dragged them from the cells but eventually they were all gathered with a few words from Lance._

_‘Right, everyone move. I’ll take the front. The Blue Lion isn’t far but stay behind me. They must have sent back up by now.’ In fact Lance was more than surprised by the lack of response. He was expecting to be fighting off drones left and right by now. Did the storm take them out to?_

_Just as he was about to get moving a furred hand grabbed his arm. Lance whirled, ready to fight if need be, coming face to face with the freed Galra. Their expression was pleading._

_‘Please, we need to get the children! They are kept separately.’_

_‘Frick! quiznack! Okay! You, come with me and show me the way. You!’ screamed Lance, pointing to a large six armed orange alien covered who looked in better health than a lot of the others. ‘Down the corridor and to the right is the blue lion. Can you get everyone there?’_

_They nodded their large fanged head at him and Lance was startled to notice they had no eyes. ‘I will do so.’_

_‘Good. You! Go with them’ said Lance, pointing to another of the Galra prisoners._

_‘I will get my child!’ they snarled back and the first Galra rounded on them, no doubt ready to start an argument._

_‘We don’t have time people! The empire will be here in a second if the coms come back on. I killed three Galra on the way here. You can work their weapons and defend the others. So just do it! How many children are there?’ asked Lance, already moving._

_Around him others stated to do the same. Rounding the door with the first Galra running beside him. Lance opened fired on the four guards they encountered. Raising his shield against the return fire. The freed Galra snarled, a savage sound, and leapt. Taking the empire Galra by surprise and breaking their neck. Lance capitalised on the distraction to take care of the rest._

_‘There are maybe around twenty or more’ panted the Galra._

_‘Quiznack’ cursed Lance. That would be a lot to get out safety. ‘Are they far?’_

_‘No. This way.’ Lance followed his charging guide. It seemed the Galra on the base were getting it together, or were more determined to keep hold of the children than the adults as their small party started encountering resistance. Lance did what he could but more than anything though it was the sheer stubbornness and rage of the ones following him that broke through the ranks. The prisoners throwing themselves bodily at the Galra, mindless of their weapons or the laser fire. Screams and snarls and curses decorated the air._

_Eventually they cleared them out and wrenched open the door to the fucked up nursery. The alien who did so went down, screaming, as they were hit with a blast of purple lightening. Lance felt the colour drain from his face, his heart skip a beat and his stomach bottom out in dread. He knew only one thing that could cause lightening like that. A druid._

_The Galra he first freed was charging forward without pause. Lance cursed and followed after, tackling them around the knees just in time for a second bolt to go sizzling over their head. The room was fairly large, considering everything. Lance had initially thought it was storage of some sort when looked at on the map. He guessed he was partly right. Cowering in one corner, several of them injured and scarred, were a number of children of all different races and colours._

_Standing over them were several Galra, guns drawn and in front of them all was the druid. Robes covered them from head to toe and they had a creepy white mask with six glowing yellow eyes. Like the ones plague doctors used to wear on earth. Lance shivered just looking at them and kept his shield raised, gun charged. They were at a standoff._

_Behind him the other aliens entered the room, only to pause when they saw the guns pointed at the children. Unable to move for fear of the Galra open firing. Looking at them Lance was taken aback a moment to realise just how many of the prisoners he had freed were Galra themselves. What did that mean? He didn’t have the time to think on it. The druid was moving._

_Lance kept his gun trained on them, knowing they were the biggest threat in the room. Didn’t Shiro say they cold teleport? They had to get the children out in some way. Was there anything he could do to distract them?_

_‘You should just give it up now. The rest of my team will be here soon.’ He goaded, hoping to steal some of the attention from the children._

_When they spoke it was a sibilant whisper, a hash and grating sound. It caused goose-bumps to appear on Lances skin and he could feel all his hairs standing on end. ‘There has been no signs of the Lions in this system.’_

_‘Yeah well, was there any sign of me? Well here I am. Lance, Paladin of the Blue Lion. Here to kick your slimy ass.’_

_‘I don’t think you will do anything if you want the children here to come to no harm’ responded the druid. Making a gesture that had the Galra raising their guns. Behind him Lance heard a snarl from the freed prisoner. Back on their feet and wound like a spring, ready to pounce. Their eyes were focused with burning intensity on one of the small children. A fluff of purple fur in the crush._

_‘Let them go’ commanded Lance. Trying to sound threatening. Would the god damn druid just stay still!? It was hard to think with them moving about like that. Had they got closer? Shit, shit, shit, he needed a distraction. Something! Anything!_

_A suffusion of warmth, a feeling of cool water down his spine. Refreshing and reassuring instead of chilling. A deep building purr within his mind. Lance grabbed the Galra behind him and with a heavy grunt threw himself forward as Blue saw fit to punch her way through the wall with her face. It shook the entire room and took everyone by surprise._

_Everyone but Lance._

_It was the work of a moment to fire his rifle, coming out of his roll as he did so. Two shots, both hitting the Galra guards on the arm, had them drop their weapons. He would have fired again but someone tackled him to the ground as an arc of lightening went zipping above him to crackle on Blues maw. The smell of burnt hair showing just how close it was._

_The weight was off him in an instant and from then on it was chaos. The two Galra were set upon with viciousness and the children, panicked and screaming, scooped up and practically thrown into the blue lion by the others. Lance himself rounded and fired at where he thought the druid was but they were no longer there. Eyes darting about wildly he only just raised his shield in time to take another blast. It shattered on impact and the force sent him flying into the opposite wall._

_No time to think Lance threw himself to the side, scrambling, and barely missed becoming a fried Paladin. Blindly he fired back, trying to keep the druid at bay._

_‘Get everyone on board! Hurry!’ he shouted. There was too much going on. He couldn’t search for the druid, watch out for the next attack and keep, and keep an eye on the children. He could only hope that everyone was moving to safety. Luckily, if the continued game of dodge the lightening was any indication the druid was wholly focused on him. Good, thought Lance grimly, it would give the others a chance._

_Blue sent a shock of cold through his system. Surprise and pain suffusing it. Quiznack the power must be coming back, now fighter drones were beginning to swarm and targeting Blue where she sat defenceless, head submerged in the base. Lance grit his teeth and looked around, blinking the sweat from eye eyes._

_There was the Galra he had freed. Three children under one arm and another scuffed in the other. They were charging desperately for the Blue Lion. Was there anyone else left? No, all clear?_

_Wait! In the far corner was a small child. Lance caught their eye, looked into their long terrified face, hair splayed out around their head like a crown. It kind of looked like a Furma-zetian._

_Furma-zetians…who couldn’t talk._

_Quiznak! No one else had noticed them in the panic. With a cry Lance threw himself forward, only for something heavy to smack into him from the side. Sending him smacking into the wall once more. The impact rattled him badly enough to steal the breath from his lungs and leave his head ringing. Falling to the floor his bayard clattered away from him. Distantly he could feel Blues continued insistence, the attack of the fighters on her flank. He needed to move! But the world was dizzy and distant, his breath sharp and short._

_In one blink the druid had cleared the distance to stand over him. Hands outstretched. ‘I think you might just be my finest specimen yet Paladin. Zarkon will reward me handsomely for your capture.’_

_Lance could barely here the words, little else but a slithering hiss. Instead his eyes were focussing in on the mute child. They stared back, terrified, eyes wide. Blue was a constant thrumming presence in his mind. The surge of energy in his breast building with their urgency. He needed to do something!_

_Struggling Lance tried to stand, only to be kicked by the druid to the floor. They had no right to be as strong as they were. Lance heard the armour on his torso crack, the pounding bruise forming on his ribs._

_‘You still have some energy I see. We will rectify that.’ Their hands glowed. Lance eyes went wide._

_At the last moment he raised his arm, trying to call forth his shield again. There was barely a flicker of blue before the lightening hit him. Racing through his nerves. Lance cried out, the pain indescribable. A white hot sensation that had everything else falling into black. There was nothing he could do but twitch and scream till his voice cracked and the lightening ended. Lance slumped to the ground, arm smoking. Bracer black and melted to his skin. He fell still. Incapable of movement._

_‘What a weak species these paladins are. This is what has been giving central command such trouble? Don’t tell me that was enough.’ Lance couldn’t move. He couldn’t see. Only feel the heat and the pain. The sting of the tears in his eyes._

_With strength he didn’t know he had Lance rolled his head to the side. Locking eyes with the child. He tried to offer a smile, lips bloody where he had bitten through them. Blues voice returned, more urgent than ever. The churning tumultuous feeling of rapids shifting through his lungs._

_**Get up! You need to get up!** It said. Lance concentrated on her but wasn’t sure he was capable of moving._

_Go! He thought back desperately. Go! Get everyone to safety. Go to the gas planet._

_**Get up Paladin! Get up! Fight!** _

_No use, she wasn’t prepared to leave him. The druid reached down and dragged him up right, hand around his throat. Lance feet left trailing on the ground as they brought their terrible masked face close. Lance closed his eyes. Blues voice bright and thunderous in his mind. His foot hit something._

_‘Well well. Aren’t we a pretty one. Perhaps Zarkon might allow me to use you for few experiments before he kills you. We could see how much you could take.’_

_Lance squeezed his eyes open and sneered at them. Bloodied teeth flashing viciously._

_**Get up! Fight! Fight Paladin!** _

_‘Sorry bitch, I don’t put out on a first date’ Lance spat as he hooked his foot through his bayard, tipping it so it pointed towards the druid. Hoping his aim was true. Then he took the surging feeling in his chest, the one he had felt when he called on the sonic cannon, the sense of accomplishment he got when he killed the Baku, the pride and joy when he saved the Furma-zetians and the desperation, the determination from just now. The absolute need to get the children to safety. He took it all, channelled it. Called upon his bayard._

_There was a flash of blue and a choked gurgling sound. Lance was dropped to the floor, foot slipping from the handle of his bayard he had hooked it round.. Both he and the druid looked with equal surprise and the blue and white spear now protruding from their chest. Had he done that? Lance blinked, world frozen in confusion._

_**Paladin!** _

_Blues shouts snapped him out of it. Lance snatched the spear, feeling how it fit perfectly in his hand, how perfectly balanced it was for him. With a grunt he dragged it from the druid and thrust once again. Shattering their mask and ending their life in an instant._

_Then Lance pushed himself forward, scooped up the child and hurled himself into the Blue. The Lion roared around him, the prisoners packed in tight throughout the cockpit and the small hold in her chest. They gathered around nervously but Lance forced his way through to the seat. Gripping the controls with both his hands, the right now numb to the burning pain, he gritted his teeth and flew Blue out of there._

_Luckily there were only a few fighters around, his idea to ice the hangers working t keep the numbers down. Lance flew rings around, not stopping to fight, conscious of his cargo. Without pause he dived straight into the storm of the gas planet, leaving his pursuers behind. There was screaming from the aliens but he paid it no mind._

_Within the storm he and Blue turned around as one. Both snarling with rage and pain, summoning forth the sonic cannon. The blasts they let loose had waves of gases and debris flying forth. Hitting the base and sweeping away the fighters. Making the previous flare look like a gentle poke. Energy rapidly draining Lance flew Blue to land in calm the centre of the planet. Gratefully giving into unconsciousness not a moment later._

Shiro and the others gapped at the screen. The cameras had cut in to Lance ripping open doors to free prisoners in the ship. The attack having already started. They sparked and crackled their way through the first part. All of them letting out a cry when the cell opened to reveal a Galra. Not a few curses were breathed when Lance lowered his weapon. The camera lacking all form of audio. From Lance gesticulating he appeared to be taking charge of the situation. Issuing orders left and right. A small selection of aliens were amassing from the open cells. Not a few of them Galra, but many Shiro didn’t recognise. A few seemed able bodied but others were obviously injured or in shock.

Pidge followed the cameras as Lance split from the group. First seeing that the more injured prisoners led by a very large orange alien with tusks that ran on four legs got to the Blue Lion and loaded in post haste. Once they were in Blue then closed up her mouth.

Lance on the other hand had broken off with a handful of the more able bodied prisoners and was charging down floors to somewhere else. Taking out Galra left and right on the way. The whole fight had been swift but vicious. Lance not hesitating to shot to kill. Something Shiro knew couldn’t have been easy for him. The other paladins had only been in this war for a short time, and while Shiro had dirtied his hands long ago, he knew that the younger members were still hesitant to do so.

When they saw the children and watched the fight with the druid Shiro could feel his heart stop. He practically ripped the screen from Pidge to get a closer look when Lance was hit by the lightening. Sure it was the end. Then he and everyone else were left exclaiming in awe when Lance materialise a spear from his bayard. Using his _foot_ of all things!

‘How did he do that?!’ shouted Keith, ‘can we all do that?’

‘How should I know?!’ snapped Pidge. ‘But did you see the lightening? There’s no way Lance is alright after being hit by that.’

‘Yeah, no duh. But where is he?! Can’t you get anything else?’ exclaimed Hunk, shaking Pidge by the shoulders. Pushing him off her with a huff Pidge set to work, trying to pull up more feeds.

‘Shiro, you alight?’ asked Keith, noticing his silence.

‘I-um, yeah I’ll be alright’ Shiro said, he was shaking minutely, cold sweat dripping down his back. Shiro looked to his hand and found his prosthetic clenched tight and faintly glowing. Taking a deep breath he slowly released it and let the energy fade away. He couldn’t afford to fall into his memories right now. Not while Lance was still missing. The attack on the bases happened a few days ago, Lance had to be close. Especially if he was badly injured. 

‘Pidge, anything?’ 

‘Nothing! I can’t track him once he flew away in Blue. Not a few moments later an even greater flare from the gas planet hit the base and trashed everything. And I mean everything this time. My guess would be that’s when the life support went down for good, along with everything else.’

‘Well he can’t of gone far. There’s now where to go’ said Hunk, anxiously biting his nails. ‘Do you think he flew off somewhere?’

‘Where though?’ said Keith, crossing his arms. ‘It’s not exactly like there’s a nearby planet to land on around here. Not to mention he had how many people stuffed in his lion? Where would he even go?’

‘I don’t know. Back to the Furma-zetians maybe? Or Queen Luxia? You don’t think we missed him on the way, do you?’

‘If that was the case they would have contacted us already.’

‘Not necessarily’ cut in Shiro, brow furrowing as he thought it through. ‘He might not have arrived yet. Don’t forget he’s not travelling by wormhole. It will take him time to cross the distance.’ They were all silent for a while, thinking it through. Eventually Shiro sighed, putting his worry to the side for now. They needed to move, if only to keep busy, while they thought of a plan. ‘Pidge grab everything you can. Cameras, logs, any information on what this base was doing and why. We’ll go back to the castle and brainstorm from there. We need to inform Allura and Coran about what happened.’

They nodded and got to it. Shiro had the boys and him scour the place for supplies. Never passing up the opportunity to grab what they could. Hunk dragged aboard one of the drones to take apart later. Something Shiro wasn’t too happy with but decided to talk to him about later. Eventually Pidge said she had got all she could and they returned to the castle. Alluras panicked voice coming through as they drew close, having been cut off early due to the interference. 

Once they re-grouped and explained the situation to her Allura has quick to use the communicators to call up Tsurrin and Queen Luxia. ‘Thank you. Please do. Goodbye’ she finished the call to the Queen and let her shoulders slump. Shiro rested what he hoped was a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She offered him a weak smile. ‘I’ve informed them that Lance is still missing and we have reason to believe he may be coming to their planet. They have promised to contact us as soon as he arrives.’

‘Lets hope that’s soon. I really can’t think where else he could be.’ 

Giving her shoulder a squeeze Shiro looked around at his fellow Paladins. Coran was watching the video for the fourth time, eyes tight. Hunk and Pidge were both fiddling with their computers; no doubt going through the data they had acquired., scouring it for clues. Keith was lent up against the side wall, arms crossed tightly. Face blank and looking unaffected were it not for the mess he had made from chewing on his lower lip. He kept his face down. Not will to look up.

Shiro sighed again, wondering how he could help them through this mess. Knowing that nothing he could do would fix it. Not unless he could suddenly pull Lance out of his back pocket. Not that he really had the energy to reassure anyone. Not when his own insides were cold with dread and worry over the blue joker of their little family. What he wouldn’t do for one of Lance inappropriate quips right now. 

‘Weird’ said Hunk suddenly. ‘That’s not right.’ He then proceeded to make a number of humming and haaing noises. Shiro felt a twitch coming on. unsurprisingly it was Keith who reached the end of his patience first.

‘What is it? What’s weird?’ he bit out, striding over. Hunk startled, coming out of his own world and twiddled his thumbs. A nervous habit Shiro had picked up on.

‘Oh, it’s just…those flares that knocked out the base. They were really _really_ lucky. Judging by the radiation patterns there was no other activity from the planet at all. For like, years. I just thought it’s strange that two waves would happen in such quick succession in such a localised area. You would have thought if they were normal the base would have been better defended against this type of thing’ he trailed off, mumbling as he went back to frowning at the data. Shiro couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

‘So…what?’ asked Keith. ‘What’s that got to do with Lance? It’s not like he could have anything to do with it?’

‘That’s it!!!’ screamed Pidge, causing them all to jump. Coran dropped something. Shiro gripped his heart, feeling it beating double time. These kids were going to kill him before the Galra got the chance at this rate. Just how long before all his hair turned white?

‘What! What’s it!’ shouted Keith, arms tense by his sides. Automatically reaching for his knife. Guess he wasn’t the only one high strung right now. 

‘Lance! He _could_ have caused those flares. In fact I bet he did! It would explain why they are so localised. He must have used them to knock the base out so he could attack it easily. Genius!’

‘How though?’ asked Hunk, coming over to hover over Pidges shoulder as she scoured through the castle scans.

‘With the sonic cannon. He’s been using it all over the place. If it’s capable of disrupting the currents it could cause a massive wave of radiation to fire out of the planet. Allura, can you run these scans?’ asked Pidge, bringing something up on the main screen. Allura nodded and turned to the dash. Tapping way rapidly at the control, Coran doing the same. After a moment the data started rolling in.

‘I knew it. See this here? It’s a different radiation signature to the planet. If we trace back the ripple pattern we can find the point of origin. That must be where he fired the sonic cannon from’ explained Pidge as she got to work. They all watched anxiously as the position was triangulated. A small dot appearing on the planet. Pidge blinked her eyes twice and re-checked the math. ‘It was fired from the inner atmosphere’ she stated, bewildered.

Hunk frowned, ‘isn’t the inner atmosphere of a gas planet filled with hundreds or millions of gasses and under like, stupid amounts of pressure? How could Lance have got in there without being squished?’

‘Oh, I might be able to answer this one number two!’ jumped in Coran, looking far more lively. ‘You see the Blue Lion, being the Guardian of Water, is designed to with stand great pressures and be capable of diving into any depth of water. They are much sturdier than their outer appearance might have you believe. I suppose number three simply figured that there’s not much difference between hundreds of litres of water and some gases elements.’

‘So…what? Lance is just swimming around in the planet right now?’ broke in Keith. Looking as disbelieving as Shiro felt. Seriously? What was Lance thinking?!

‘Well its possible I suppose. Princess, what do you think?’ asked Coran. Allura deliberated for a bit before turning to the controls. 

‘Everyone to your seats. I’m going to set the particle barrier to full power. It should allow us to get into the first atmospheric layer of the planet to some extent. If Lance is there we will find him.’

Shiro rushed to his chair along with the others. Bringing up his own dash for what good it would do. Slowly, particle barrier shinning, everyone tense, the castle descended into the orange gas planet. The storm raged around. There scanning equipment failed almost instantly. There was nothing to see out the viewing window but a wall of tangerine dust. Allura frowned and took them in deeper. Coran anxiously monitoring the effect of the pressure on the castle. 

Then they were through. Straight into clear air. No storm. No pressure. All of them were thrown for a loop. No knowing what to think. A small, unassuming beep sounded somewhere. A point appearing on the map. One they had all been searching for. 

‘Its Lance!’ shouted Keith, focusing in on the screen.

Indeed it was Lance; Shiro didn’t need the scanners to tell him that. There, on a small asteroid of rock and ice within the centre of this weird world stood the Blue Lion. Looking scrapped and dirty, with a few laser burns to the flanks, but otherwise alright. People were milling about but had stopped to look up as the castle descended.

They paladins and the alteans rushed out. Barely checking that the atmosphere was breathable. Shiro pulled ahead, adjusting to the lower gravity to bound over to the group of aliens. The sight of several Galra in their midst was almost enough to make him stop. He would have done so if not for hearing the distinctive sound of Lance braying laugh from the middle of the group. After that there was no stopping him. He barrelled though everyone, just about not knocking anyone over. His fellow Paladins behind him were not so kind, or perhaps more clumsy.

Lance barely had a moment to widen his eyes and let out a delighted ‘Shiro!’ before he had crushed the boy into a hug. Hauling him from the ground, their armour banging together. Then the rest of the Paladins arrived and the whole group of them were sent tumbling down. Exclamations of Lance name pouring fourth. Lance merely laughed and wrapped his arms tight around him in return. 

‘You found me!’

‘Of course we did you idiot! Just what do you think you’ve been doing? Didn’t you mother ever teach you to stay in one place when you get lost!’

‘I’ve mi-missed y-you so much!! I’m so glad you alright. Don’t ever do that to me again. If you do I'll. I’ll… I’ll tell every about the furby incident’ threatened Hunk. Eliciting a squawk from Lance in return.

‘Hunk, you traitor! You promised to never speak of that again!’

Keith let out a huff of laughter where he was squished up against Shiro. A relaxed little smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. ‘Good to see you again sharpshooter’ he said, softly.

‘I- yeah, you to man. How is everyone one? Princess, looking as radiant as ever. Do get a welcome home kiss?’

Allura sighed from where she and some of the others were detangling themselves from the pile. Although she sounded exasperated her eyes were warm. Before Lance could react she leaned forward and had given him a small peck on the cheek. Instantly turning the boy red and mute as he gapped at her. 

Allura smirked at him before hugging the Blue Paladin tight. ‘Don’t you disappear on us again. That’s an order.’

‘Ah, right. I hear you. Loud and clear…though I have to say if that’s your incentive then you’re not making this easy. Do I get another kiss if I stay put. Say, like, every week I don’t get captured or spirited away I get a peck. A full kiss for a month?’

‘Wow, a whole week? Aiming kind of high there Lance’ broke in Shiro, stepping in before things got out of hand. The boy seemed far to enthused with his idea. ‘How about we just get this mess sorted out before thinking about next time?’

It was about then that every remembered that Lance was injured and Coran rushed off to prepare a pod. Then they remembered the waiting aliens which had Allura immediately switched to work mode and started ordering everyone around. Getting the others to prepare the med wing, move the Blue Lion to its bay and sort out places for the aliens to sleep. Which left Shiro with the job of escorting Lance back to the castle, the boys good arm slung over his shoulders. The Cuban was worryingly week and tired easily from the short walk.

‘Hay’ said Shiro, waiting till he had Lances attention. ‘We know what you did, with the mermaids and the Furma-zetians. And the laboratory base, of course.’

‘Oh, yeah? Hehe, ‘spose your gonna tell me I should have stayed put like Pidge wanted and not put myself in danger.’

‘Actually I was gonna say I’m proud of you and you made the right choice. Even if, yes, I would have preferred it if you waited for us. If only so I didn’t have to suffer a heart attack pinging around the whole system looking for you.’ Lance looked at Shiro, surprised eyes wide. An embarrassed flush rising to his face. Shiro smiled back at the boy, wanting to get his point across. 

‘You did well Lance. While you took risks you minimised them as best you could. You unlocked a new ability in your lion and bayard!’ exclaimed Shiro with excitement as they entered the pod room. Slowly he helped Lance get into the pod suit. Grimacing when he saw the state of his arm. Hopefully the pod would be able to fix it up without too much scarring. 

‘Thanks Shiro’ said Lance, rubbing the back of his neck. Another tell Shiro had picked up on and one that meant Lance was unsure about something.

‘Hay, I mean it. Look at me’ he said, putting both of his hands on Lance shoulders and looking him in the eyes. Willing him to understand. ‘What you did was amazing. We are all so proud of you. You thought creatively and quickly on your feet. While also helping those in need. It’s what this team needs. An adaptable, considerate thinker. You really showed what it meant to be a Paladin.’

‘Yeah? Yeah! I did, didn’t I. I am pretty awesome you know. Did you know that I can turn my bayard into a spear now? Oh, and Blue is like, talking to me? Well, not really talking so much as sort of pushing her feelings on to me. But not in, like, an obtrusive way. More like a tingly way. Oh, oh! And I can use the sonic cannon as an EMP! Though it takes a lot out of Blue so I probably can’t use that often.’

‘Get some rest Lance. You can tell us all about it in the morning. Now its pod time’ cut off Shiro, recognising the beginning of a rant when he saw one. Despite his battered state Lance seemed suffused with happiness, vibrating with pride. Shiro was glad. He wasn’t kidding when he said Lance had shown what it was to be a paladin. The rest of them would have to step up their game.


End file.
